Background: Proteinuria together with hypertension are known risk factors for poor allograft as well as patient survivals after renal transplantation. In adults, proteinuria can be reduced by lowering blood pressure and by using angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. In children, no study has investigated the antiproteinuric effects of antihypertensive therapy. Herein we investigated changes in proteinuria among a subgroup of children with proteinuria>or=200 mg/m2d in an interventional study primary aimed to improve the efficacy of antihypertensive therapy.
Patients and methods: Twelve children with proteinuria>or=200 mg/m2d were included in the study. Proteinuria was investigated at baseline and at 1 year after changes in antihypertensive therapy. Blood pressure (BP) was measured using ambulatory BP monitoring.
Results: The median protein excretion of 226 mg/m2/d (range, 41-1478 mg/m2/d) at 1 year before the study did not change significantly at study baseline (278 mg/m2/d; range, 205-1264 mg/m2/d), but decreased significantly to 199 mg/m2/d (range, 65-749 mg/m2/d) after 1 year (P<.05 vs baseline). The number of antihypertensive drugs was increased from 1.6+/-1.0 to 2.2+/-0.9 drugs/patient after 1 year (P<.05). The use of different classes of antihypertensive drugs did not change significantly. Mean ambulatory systolic and diastolic BP at daytime and diastolic BP at nighttime did not change significantly after 1 year; mean ambulatory systolic BP at night decreased from 1.60+/-1.54 to 1.04+/-0.97 standard deviation score (P<.05). Graft function did not change significantly.
Conclusion: We demonstrated that proteinuria among children after renal transplantation was reduced by intensified antihypertensive therapy using all classes of antihypertensive drugs.