A one year prospective comparison of kidney growth and function in children recipients of grafts from children and adults.
BACKGROUND
Renal grafts have demonstrated capacity to adapt to the recipient. The aim of this study was to assess the growth of renal grafts transplanted to children, during the first year posttransplant.


METHODS
We conducted a 1 year prospective study comparing the growth of renal grafts from children and adults donors transplanted in children, and correlated this growth with graft function. Two groups were studied: (a) group 1-32 children transplanted with pediatric deceased kidneys from donors younger than 16 years and (b) group 2-31 children transplanted with organs from adult living donors. Anthropometric assessment, sonographic measurement of the graft, and serum creatinine at 1 week, 1, 6, and 12 months posttransplantation were performed.


RESULTS
Children from group 1 presented an 18% increase in graft volume after the sixth month of transplant, whereas in group 2 grafts presented a 14% reduction in volume, mainly during the first month; the variation in renal diameters was not uniform. Children from group 1 presented a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) increase during the follow-up (46-102 mL/min/1.73 m). After 1 year, GFR and graft volume were similar. Growth of individuals from both groups was comparable.


CONCLUSIONS
In the short term, pediatric kidneys raise volume and GFR, whereas adult kidneys slightly lower volume and GFR when transplanted in children. Taking our and other studies results into consideration, we can hypothesize that in addition to compensatory hypertrophy, pediatric grafts are likely capable of continued somatic growth.
Feltran
Luciana de Santis
Lde S
Nephrology Department, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Hospital do Rim e Hipertensão, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Nogueira
Paulo Cesar Koch
PC
Silva
Frederico Adolfo Benevides
FA
Ajzen
Sergio Aron
SA
Pacheco-Silva
Alvaro
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002102:Cadaver; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*