Incidence and risk factors of post-transplant diabetes mellitus among transplanted renal allograft recipients

Background: Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) contributes to the risk for cardiovascular diseases and infection, reducing graft and patient survival. This study was conducted to identify the incidence and risk factors for development of PTDM. Methods: We studied 50 non-diabetic adult dialyzed patients awaiting renal transplantation prospectively. Oral glucose tolerance test (oGTT) was performed pre- and post-transplantation. The relationship between age, weight (BMI), dialysis modality, family history of diabetes, and duration of dialysis and PTDM was assessed. Results: Based on oGTT1, 13 patients had unknown diabetes mellitus; however, after transplantation only 9 had similar results. Based on oGTT2, 6 (16.22%) patients had actually PTDM. The age of patients with PTDM was significantly higher than that of those with normal test (43±17 vs 31±11 years old). There was a significant relationship between duration of dialysis with PTDM, as normal oGTT was seen in 85.2% of patients dialyzed for less than 1 year. There was no significant relationship among dialysis modality and family history of diabetes and BMI with PTDM. Conclusion: Risk factors for diabetes in our study were age and duration of dialysis before transplantation. Therefore, identifying them might allow modification of post- transplant immunosuppressant with non-dibetogenic agents in high risk patients.