BMI doesn't affect kidney transplant survival

(HealthDay)—For patients undergoing kidney transplantation, survival is unaffected by body mass index (BMI), according to a study published online July 3 in the American Journal of Transplantation.

Nithya Krishnan, M.B.B.S., from the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the impact of BMI on mortality in transplanted patients and those remaining on the waiting list in the United Kingdom. Data were analyzed from the U.K. Renal Registry and the National Health Service Blood and Transplant Organ Donation and Transplantation. From Jan. 1, 2004, to Dec. 31, 2010, 17,681 patients were listed, and BMI was recorded for 77 percent. Patients were followed through Dec. 31, 2011.

The researchers found that in all BMI bands, one- and five-year patient survival was significantly better in the transplant group versus the waiting list group. The results were essentially the same in analyses excluding live donor transplants. There was no cutoff observed among patients with higher BMI where there would be no benefit of transplantation in analyses of survival with BMI as a continuous variable. There was no difference in patient or graft survival between the defined BMI bands for the 8,088 transplanted patients.
"As BMI in the population is rising and likely to continue to rise, it is important that Renal Units respond to this challenge with positive attitude toward widening access to transplant," the authors write.

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