Long term outcome of renal allografts in patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy

Recurrent glomerular disease is an important cause of late allograft loss in renal transplant recipients. Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is a leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide and its recurrence has been reported in allografts. The present study examined outcomes following renal transplantation (RTX) in 101 patients with ESRD due to biopsy-proven IgAN, in comparison to non-IgA patients, and evaluated the incidence of recurrence. The study population (mean age 34.8 +/- 7.7 years; males 62.2%; Chinese 88.3%) underwent RTX under CsA immunosuppression between November 1984 and December 2004; as two patients underwent retransplantation during the study period, 103 allografts (56.3% cadaveric) were included for retrospective analysis. At time of analysis on 1 January 2005, 78 (75.7%) renal allografts (IgAN RTX) were functioning, of which 51 (49.5%) had normal serum creatinine, 27 (26.2%) had chronic allograft dysfunction, while 25 had graft losses, either due to patient death with functioning grafts (5.8%) or withdrawal to dialysis (18.5%). Persistent microscopic haematuria, not attributable to other causes or proteinuria > 1 g/day occurred in 42.7% and 13.6% of allografts respectively. Of 29 allografts biopsied for evaluation of proteinuria and/or renal dysfunction post-RTX, 8 (27.6%) had IgAN (overall histological recurrence, 7.8%). Of these, three had graft loss due to recurrent IgAN, three had elevated serum creatinine, while two had normal serum creatinine. Overall five and ten year patient survivals for IgAN RTX were 95.3% and 82.2%, and five and ten year actuarial graft survivals were 82.3% and 67.8% respectively. Five and ten year patient and graft survivals for IgAN RTX were not significantly different from that for non-IgAN RTX. In summary, RTX patients with IgAN have a low incidence of documented histological recurrence and recurrence contributing to graft loss occurs in only 2.9%. These results suggest that RTX is an excellent modality of renal replacement therapy in this population.