The clinical status of cadaveric renal transplant patients treated for 10 year with cyclosporine therapy

In this paper we assessed the clinical status of 150 cadaveric renal transplant patients who received cyclosporine without interruption for 10 yr. The mean creatinine clearance was 59.2 ± 15.71 at 1 yr and 55.6 ± 24.91 mL/min at 10 yr (p = 0.039). Patients were subdivided into four quartiles according to the mean creatinine clearance at 1 yr. The 14 patients with the lowest quartile showed a significant decrease of creatinine clearance from the 1st to 10th year (from 31.5 ±- 5.83 to 24.8 ± 14.00 mL/min; p = 0.038) while no difference between the mean creatinine clearance at 1 and at 10 yr was found in the other three quartiles. At 10 yr, 84.6% patients needed antihypertensive therapy, a rate similar to that seen at 1 yr (81.4%). The mean plasma cholesterol (253 ± 57.8 mg/dL) and triglyceride (197 ± 113.1 mg/dL) at 10 yr were similar to those found at 1 yr (243 ± 48.2 and 201 ± 143.0 mg/dL, respectively). Most patients have a high degree of rehabilitation 10 yr after uninterrupted cyclosporine therapy and all patients but 3 were able to work.