Prevalence and association of post-renal transplant anemia

In some renal allograft recipients,anemia persists or develops following transplantation. Anemia is associated with pre-operative blood loss and allograft dysfunction,including delayed graft function,acute rejection and chronic allograft dysfunction. To study the prevalence and association of post-renal transplant anemia,we studied 200 renal transplant recipients; 131 (65.5%) patients were males and 69 (34.5%) patients were females,and age ranged from 17 to 67 years,with a mean of 37.7 ± 10.8 years. All patients were receiving cyclosporine,prednisolone and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). Complete blood count was done at two times: three and six months post-renal transplant. There were 74% anemic patients three months after renal transplantation and 45% anemic patients six months after renal transplantation. High creatinine value,female gender,delayed graft function,episodes of acute rejection,perioperative blood loss and infections were the only significant independent risk factors for prevalence of anemia post-renal transplant. In our study,we did not find an association between MMF and cyclosporine nor angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptors blocker (ARBs) with anemia. This study demonstrates that anemia is a common complication during the first six months after kidney transplantation,with several risk factors precipitating this complication.