title: Effect of amyloidosis on long-term survival in kidney transplantation.
abstract: Amyloidosis is characterized by the accumulation of an amorphous material in various organs and tissues secondary to a variety of inflammatory, immune, infectious, and hereditary diseases. Since 1975, our transplantation team has performed 1470 renal transplantations. Between 1985 and July 2004, among 1159 kidney transplantations, 953 (82.3%) were from living donors and 206 (17.7%) from cadaveric donors. There were 32 recipients (28 men, 4 women; mean age, 31.4 +/- 1.7 years; range, 21 to 48 years) with amyloidosis, including, 28 (87.5%) who received grafts from living donors and 4 (12.5%) from cadaveric donors. Amyloidosis was secondary to familial Mediterranean fever in 22 (68.7%) patients and rheumatoid arthritis in 1 (3.1%). The remaining 9 (28.1%) patients had primary amyloidosis. The mean follow-up time was 51.2 +/- 5.7 months (range, 2-124 months). Mean HLA mismatch rate was 2.2 +/- 1. Twenty-six (81.2%) patients are alive at this time with functioning grafts, and a mean serum creatinine value of 2.1 +/- 1.5 ng/dL. The 1- and 5-year patient and graft survival rates were 90.6% and 84.3%, and 81.2% and 68.7%, respectively. We conclude that patients with amyloidosis may undergo kidney transplantation safely expecting outcomes similar to those patients who receive transplantations for other reasons.
authors.affiliation: Baskent University, Department of General Surgery, Transplantation Unit, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Emiroglu
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Başaran
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pehlivan
authors.forename: F N
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Colak
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moray
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Noyan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haberal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000686:Amyloidosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D010505:Familial Mediterranean Fever / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017741:Survivors; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors