New Onset Diabetes after Transplant – Risk Factors, Clinical Profile and Outcome

Abstract

Background: New onset diabetes after transplant (NODAT) remains one among the significant threats to both renal allograft and patient survival. The aim of this study was to analyse the clinical profile and risk factors for NODAT.Methods: This prospective observational study involved patients who underwent renal transplantation in our centre between 2010 and 2015.Results: During the mean follow up period of 18 ± 6 months, incidence of NODAT was 26.6% and the cumulativeincidence was highest in the first year after transplant. Recipient age, pre transplant impaired fasting glucose, Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, family history of diabetes, tacrolimus, post transplant hypertriglyceridemia and metabolic syndrome were found to be statistically significant risk factors for NODAT. In Cox multivariate regression analysis, age and family history of diabetes were found to be independent risk factors for NODAT. Fasting C-peptide level underlines insulin resistance as predominant mechanism for NODAT in two third of patients. There were higher incidence of urinary tract infection in the NODAT patients. NODAT was found to be an independent risk factor for fungal infection and 10 year cardiovascular risk in the renal recipients. There was no significant impact of NODAT on short term graft and patient survival.Conclusion: Age, pre-transplant fasting blood glucose, family history of diabetes, HCV infection and tacrolimus were found to be the important risk factors, with insulin resistance as the predominant mechanism for NODAT.