Anemia and Immunosuppressive Regimen in Renal Transplanted Patients: Single-Center Retrospective Study

We compared retrospectively the level of hemoglobin and the percentage of patients with anemia among 59 kidney transplant recipients receiving everolimus, cyclosporine, and corticosteroids and 128 treated with cyclosporine, mycophenolic acid, and corticosteroids. We also compared age at the time of transplantation, sex and ferritine, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, folic acid, cyanocobalamine levels, use od recombinant erythropoietin, mean corpuscolar volume at the last ambulatory control. Statistical analysis included Student t test, chi(2) test, and logistic regression. The analysis was performed using SPSS software. We observed no difference in terms of hemoglobin levels in patients treated with everolimus (12.9 +/- 1.6 vs 12.7 +/- 1.5 g/dL). Anemia (defined as hemoglobin <13 g/dL in men and <12 g/dL in women, or need to use erythropoietin) was found in 49% and 45% of patients in the 2 groups respectively (P = .6). The other parameters evaluated were similar except for the mean corpuscular volume, which was significantly lower in the everolimus group. In the multivariate analysis only serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate influenced the level of hemoglobin. We observed no differences in terms of development of anemia in renal transplanted patients treated with everolimus-based regimen.