IgA Nephropathy After Renal Transplant: Recurrences and De Novo Cases

Abstract

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) recurrence in the renal graft is variable. Several factors can influence the risk of recurrence of IgAN and renal graft failure. We carried out a retrospective observational study between the years 1990 and 2018. The study group was patients diagnosed, by means of biopsy, as having post-renal transplant (RT) IgAN in our hospital in the study period. The control group was patients with pre-RT histologic diagnosis of IgAN who did not develop recurrence of the disease after the RT. A total of 1535 RTs were performed in our center in the study period. Of those, 24 patients developed IgAN in the renal graft. The time elapsed from the RT to the development of allograft IgAN was 7 (SD, 5.3) years. The patients with allograft IgAN tended to be younger (P = .069), and HLA-DR4 was more common in these patients (P = .078). We observed a very significant difference in the use of induction immunosuppressive therapy (study group vs control group: 13.6% vs 57.7%, P < .001). The 3 patients who presented crescents in the biopsy specimen lost the renal graft. As in the native kidney, the presence of crescents is an indicator of poor prognosis. In our experience, the patients with post-RT IgAN received induction therapy less frequently; this finding would support the conclusion that such treatments should be applied to patients with pre-RT diagnosis of IgAN.