OBJECTIVETo identify the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) events in kidney allograft recipients.

METHODSWe followed up 361 renal transplant recipients who had undergone renal transplantation in our center from January 2000 to December 2003 and evaluated the cumulative incidences and mortalities of CVD complications at baseline and post-transplantation 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months. Kaplan-Meier plot was used to assess the incidence and Cox's proportional hazards model to determine the risk factors for cardiovascular complications.

RESULTSThe cumulative incidences of CVD were 3.1%, 5.4%, 9.9%, 13.0%, 18.0%, 21.1%, and 24.1%, 1, 6, 12, 36, 48, and 60 months after transplantation, respectively. History of diabetes mellitus (RR 2.19, 95% CI 1.32-3.97, P = 0.009) and CVD (RR 6.34, 95% CI 3.76-14.60, P = 0.002) as well as the post-transplantation hypertension (RR 1.18, 95% CI 1.02-1.34, P = 0.04), diabetes mellitus (RR 2.82, 95% CI 1.33-7.26, P = 0.002), hyperlipidemia (RR 2.04, 95% CI 1.26-5.17, P = 0.008) and abnormal creatinine (> 200 micromol/L, RR 1.81, 95% CI 1.08-3.21, P = 0.03), and proteinuria (> 0.3 g/d , RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.12-3.54, P = 0.05) were independently correlated with the development of cardiovascular events.

CONCLUSIONHistory of diabetes mellitus and CVD, post-transplant hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, abnormal creatinine and proteinuria are the independent risk factors of the development of CVD events.