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. 2022 Apr 25;37(5):928-936.
doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfab054.

Increased risk of ischaemic heart disease after kidney donation

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Increased risk of ischaemic heart disease after kidney donation

Anders J Haugen et al. Nephrol Dial Transplant. .

Abstract

Background: Previous reports suggest increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular mortality after kidney donation. In this study we investigate the occurrence of ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, diabetes and cancer in live kidney donors compared with healthy controls eligible for donation.

Methods: Different diagnoses were assessed in 1029 kidney donors and 16 084 controls. The diagnoses at follow-up were self-reported for the controls and registered by a physician for the donors. Stratified logistic regression was used to estimate associations with various disease outcomes, adjusted for gender, age at follow-up, smoking at baseline, body mass index at baseline, systolic blood pressure at baseline and time since the donation.

Results: The mean observation time was 11.3 years [standard deviation (SD) 8.1] for donors versus 16.4 years (SD 5.7) for controls. The age at follow-up was 56.1 years (SD 12.4) in donors versus 53.5 years (SD 11.1) in controls and 44% of donors were males versus 39.3% in the controls. At follow-up, 35 (3.5%) of the donors had been diagnosed with ischaemic heart disease versus 267 (1.7%) of the controls. The adjusted odds ratio for ischaemic heart disease was 1.64 (confidence interval 1.10-2.43; P = 0.01) in donors compared with controls. There were no significant differences for the risks of cerebrovascular disease, diabetes or cancer.

Conclusions: During long-term follow-up of kidney donors, we found an increased risk of ischaemic heart disease compared with healthy controls. This information may be important in the follow-up and selection process of living kidney donors.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease; epidemiology; kidney donation.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Baseline selection criteria. Of 1952 donors who were alive at the time of the study, follow-up data on 1422 (nephrectomized between 1963 and 2007) were available. A total of 1029 of these donors fulfilled standard donation criteria at the time of donation (1972–2007) and were included in the final analysis.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Stratification model.

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