No abstract

Deceased-donor kidneys with acute kidney injury (AKI) are often discarded due to fear of poor outcomes. We performed a multicenter study to determine associations of AKI (increasing admission-to-terminal serum creatinine by AKI Network stages) with kidney discard, delayed graft function (DGF) and 6-month estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). In 1632 donors, kidney discard risk increased for AKI stages 1, 2 and 3 (compared to no AKI) with adjusted relative risks of 1.28 (1.08–1.52), 1.82 (1.45–2.30) and 2.74 (2.0–3.75), respectively. Adjusted relative risk for DGF also increased by donor AKI stage: 1.27 (1.09–1.49), 1.70 (1.37–2.12) and 2.25 (1.74–2.91), respectively. Six-month eGFR, however, was similar across AKI categories but was lower for recipients with DGF (48 [interquartile range: 31–61] vs. 58 [45–75] ml/min/1.73m2 for no DGF, P<0.001). There was significant favorable interaction between donor AKI and DGF such that 6-month eGFR was progressively better for DGF kidneys with increasing donor AKI (46 [29–60], 49 [32–64], 52 [36–59] and 58 [39–71] ml/min/1.73m2 for no AKI, stage 1, 2 and 3, respectively; interaction P=0.05). Donor AKI is associated with kidney discard and DGF, but given acceptable 6-month allograft function, clinicians should consider cautious expansion into this donor pool.

Nonadherence to immunosuppressive medications may partly explain the worse allograft outcomes among black recipients of renal transplants. In a prospective cohort study of recipients of deceased donor renal transplants, microelectronic cap monitors were placed on bottles of one immunosuppressive medication to (1) measure average daily percentage adherence during the first posttransplantation year and (2) determine the factors associated with adherence. A total of 278 transplant recipients who provided sufficient microelectronic adherence data were grouped into four categories of average daily percentage adherence: 95 to 100% adherence (41.0% of patients), 80 to 95% adherence (32.4%), 50 to 80% adherence (12.9%), and 0 to 50% adherence (13.7%). In the unadjusted ordinal logistic regression model, black race was associated with decreased adherence (odds ratio [