title: Short-term experience with early steroid withdrawal in African-American renal transplant recipients.
abstract: There are limited data on the results of early steroid withdrawal (ESW) in African-American (AA) renal allograft recipients. We examined short-term transplant outcomes in a retrospective, non-concurrent cohort study of 40 AAs who did not (ESW group), and 33 who did [steroid maintenance (SM) group] receive maintenance steroids after day 4 post-transplant. Patients received thymoglobulin (ATG) induction, mycophenolate mofetil, and tacrolimus or sirolimus. Data were analyzed using survival analysis methods and regression models. Patients in the ESW group were older, had lower current panel reactive antibody and fewer re-transplants, and received fewer doses of ATG. One-year graft survival and acute rejection (AR) rates were 100% and 13% in the ESW group and 97% and 15% in the SM group. After controlling for confounders, at 1 year, ESW was not associated with higher risk of graft loss, AR, or worse graft function, but was associated with less weight gain. The SM group had higher cholesterol levels at 3 months and higher risk of post-transplant diabetes mellitus. We did not observe any cases of subclinical rejection. This study suggests that ESW under modern immunosuppression is safe over the short term in at least a subset of AA recipients with risk profiles similar to those studied herein, and could be associated with improved outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA. ahariria@medicine.umaryland.edu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haririan
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Sillix
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morawski
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: El-Amm
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garnick
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Doshi
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: West
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Gruber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001706:Biopsy; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015430:Weight Gain
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids