Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine the endothelial function in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), stage V (end-stage renal disease--ESRD), before and during a one-year observation after kidney allotransplantation.
Patients and methods: We studied 40 patients with stabile graft function after their first kidney transplantation, including 21 females (mean age 41 +/- 12.5 yrs) and 19 males (mean age 43.6 +/- 13.3 yrs), treated already with hemodialysis because of ESRD.
Results: After transplantation we observed significant decrease in serum creatinine concentrations (Cr) (7.32 +/- 2.07 mg/dl to 1.50 +/- 0.45 mg/dl at 6 months and 1.61 +/- 0.58 mg/dl after 12 months after transplantation). During 12 months we found changes only in plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) levels. Von Willebrandt factor (vWf) levels remained unaltered during follow-up and total homocysteine (tHcy) concentration decreased, but this change was not statistically significant. There was no correlation between vWf and PAI-1 concentrations and other clinical and laboratory findings.
Conclusions: In our study we did not find any improvement of endothelial function during the first year after kidney allotransplantation. The mean Cr concentration at the end of study was 1.6 mg/dl, which indicates the chronic kidney graft insufficiency. We conclude that despite kidney allotransplantation endothelial function is impaired like in CKD, but with more advanced abnormalities in the cardiovascular system.