Ventricular arrhythmia in incident kidney transplant recipients: prevalence and associated factors.
Cardiovascular mortality in kidney transplant recipients has shown to be substantially elevated particularly in the first year of transplantation. Complex ventricular arrhythmia (VA) has been pointed as one of the etiologies of sudden death. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of VA and to investigate the factors associated with their occurrence in incident kidney transplant recipients. A total of 100 incident kidney transplant recipients were included in the study (39.7 ± 10.1 years, 55% male, 43.6 ± 10.1 days of transplantation, 66% living donors). All the patients underwent 24 h electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and multi-slice computed tomography. Thirty percent of the patients had VA. Left ventricular hypertrophy was observed in 57% of the patients while heart failure was found in 5%. Coronary artery calcification (CAC) was observed in 26 patients, from which 31% had severe calcification. The group of patients with VA was predominantly male, had been on dialysis therapy for a longer time and had more coronary calcification. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, male gender and CAC score were independently associated with the presence of VA. In conclusion, kidney transplant recipients exhibited a high prevalence of VA and the factors associated with its occurrence were the male gender and the presence of CAC.
Marcassi
Aline P
AP
Nephrology Division, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Yasbek
Daniel C
DC
Pestana
Jose Osmar Medina
JO
Fachini
Fernando Carlos
FC
De Lira Filho
Edgar Bezerra
EB
Cassiolato
José Luiz
JL
Canziani
Maria Eugênia F
ME
D000328:Adult; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013617:Tachycardia, Supraventricular / Q000453:epidemiology; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000453:epidemiology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D018879:Ventricular Premature Complexes / Q000453:epidemiology