Inferior late functional and metabolic outcomes in African American simultaneous kidney-pancreas recipients

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of ethnicity on the major endpoints of a prospective, multi-center, randomized trial of 2 dosing regimens of daclizumab compared with no antibody induction in simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation (SKPT). A total of 298 patients were randomized into 3 groups: daclizumab 1 mg/kg/dose every 14 days for 5 doses (Group I, n = 107), daclizumab 2 mg/kg/dose every 14 days for 2 doses (Group II, n = 113), and no antibody induction (Group III, n = 78). All patients received tacrolimus (TAC), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), and steroids. Thirty-seven patients (12.4%) were African American (AA) and 261 were non-African American (NAA). Demographic and transplant characteristics were comparable between AA and NAA patients. At 3 years, there were no differences in patient, kidney, or pancreas graft survival rates. Rejection rate was similar between AA and NAA. Although mean serum creatinine (SCr) levels at 1 year were comparable between AA and NAA patients (AA 1.5 mg/dL vs NAA 1.3 mg/dL; P =.23), by 3 years AA patients had higher mean SCr levels (AA 2.1 mg/dL vs NAA 1.5 mg/dL; P <.0001) and lower calculated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (AA 45 mL/min vs NAA 56 mL/min; P =.01). Mean HgbAlC, total cholesterol, and diastolic blood pressure (BP) were higher in AA patients at 3 years, compared with NAA patients. In conclusion, in this study, AA patients had worse late functional and metabolic outcomes after SKPT compared with NAA patients. Further longitudinal follow-up is needed to determine the ultimate impact of these findings on long-term patient and graft survival.