The results indicate that patients at high risk for FSGS recurrence can be identified and may benefit from carefully planned peritransplant interventions.

Progressive glomerulonephritis and attendant end-stage renal disease (ESRD) result from antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis. The optimum time of kidney transplantation in patients with ESRD due to ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and the risk of renal or nonrenal recurrence of vasculitis after transplantation are unknown. To answer some of these questions, we followed 35 transplant recipients with diagnoses of microscopic polyangiitis (20 patients) and Wegener's granulomatosis (15 patients). The median time from diagnosis to transplantation was 25 months with all patients being in clinical remission. Fifteen patients were ANCA-positive at time of the transplant with 13 preemptive transplants. The most common immunosuppressive strategy included antibody induction, corticosteroid, mycophenolate mofetil, and tacrolimus with acute rejection occurring in eight cases. Overall and death-censored graft survivals were 94 and 100%, respectively, 5 years post-transplantation. Nonrenal relapse occurred in three patients with a satisfactory response to treatment. No clear risk factor to relapse emerged and no detrimental effect to renal function was found. We conclude that transplantation should be considered as the treatment of choice for ESRD due to AAV. Potent antirejection regimes are well tolerated in these patients, are associated with a low risk of recurrence and an absence of AAV-related graft dysfunction.

These analyses assessed whether creatinine based estimates of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) accurately represent (1) graft function at different times post-transplant and (2) changes in function over time. These analyses compared iothalamate GFR to eGFR in 684 kidney allograft recipients. Changes in graft function over time (GFR slope) were measured in 360 of 459 recipients (78%) who were followed for at least 3 years. Ninety-five percent of the patients were Caucasians and 72% received kidneys from living donors. All eGFR calculations correlated significantly with GFR at all time points. However, eGFR were less precise and less accurate during the first-year post-transplant than thereafter. The average rate of GFR change (slope) was −2.93 ± 11.3%/year (−1.06 ± 5.3 mL/min/1.73m 2 /year). Fiftyfour percent of patients had stable or positive GFR slopes. The GFR and eGFR slopes were highly correlated. However, eGFR slope, particularly when calculated by MDRD, significantly underestimated the number of patients with declining graft function. For example, 165 out of 360 patients (46%) lost GFR faster than −1 mL/min/1.73m 2 /year. eMDRD identified only 83 of these patients (50%) while the eMayo formula identified 134 (81%). In conclusion, eGFR correlate with GFR but they have relatively low precision and accuracy particularly early post-transplant. eGFR slopes underestimate graft functional loss although some formulas are significantly better than others for this calculation.

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