Long-term patient survival and kidney allograft survival in post-transplant diabetes mellitus: a single-center retrospective study

A decade ago, observations suggested that post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) was linked to allograft loss and shorter patient survival. Increasing awareness, improvements in care, and changes in the immunosuppressive regimen may have modified this association. Single-center analysis of 1990 (age>18; transplantation date 1996-2012) primary kidney recipients (KTR). Patients with <12 months follow-up were excluded. Diabetes was diagnosed according to ADA criteria and characterized as follows: No diabetes, PTDM in the first post-transplant year not treated with glucose-lowering medications (GLM) at 12 months, PTDM in the first post-transplant year treated with GLM at 12 months, and pretransplant diabetes. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the relationship of PTDM with allograft and patient survival. Mean follow-up time was 6.8 years for allograft survival and 7.4 years for patient survival. PTDM treated with medication at year one was not associated with allograft survival (HR 1.28, 95% CI 0.97-1.69), but was significantly associated with overall mortality and death with functioning graft (DWFG) (HR overall: 1.81, 95% CI 1.36-2.39; HR DWFG: 1.59 95% CI 1.05-2.38). In this cohort, KTR with PTDM being treated with glucose-lowering medication at 12 months experienced significantly shorter overall survival and survival with functioning graft.