title: Left ventricular hypertrophy in pediatric kidney transplant recipients: long-term follow-up study.
abstract: Cross-sectional studies indicate that LVH, known cardiovascular risk factor, is frequent in pediatric patients post-kidney transplant. We performed a retrospective longitudinal analysis of echocardiographic data collected in children and adolescents who received kidney transplant from 1998 to 2003. The first echo was performed at a median time post-transplant of 14 months in 47 children; a second echo (echo 2) was carried out at a median time of 33 months in 31 and a third echo (echo 3) was performed at a median time of 49 months in 14 children. LVH was defined as LV mass index >/=95th percentile for children. LVH was present in echo 1 in 25 (54%) subjects. Systolic blood pressure (p = 0.02) and BMI (p = 0.02) independently predicted the LVH seen in echo1 in multivariate logistic regression. In 14 subjects with three consecutive echocardiograms LVM index significantly decreased from echo 1 to echo 2 and from echo 1 to echo3 (p < 0.05), but no significant changes were observed between echo 2 and echo 3. The overall prevalence of LVH remained unchanged but its severity significantly decreased during the follow-up. The results of the study suggest that despite regression of LVM index overtime-pediatric patients post-kidney transplant are at continuous risk for developing cardiovascular disease.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bullington
authors.forename: Janis
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kartel
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khoury
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mitsnefes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors