Mirioglu S, et al. - The clinical and pathological features of post- renal transplant glomerulonephritis (GN) were elucidated in this retrospective study with case–control design, along with the impacts of these features on transplant recipients. Findings demonstrated an association of recurrent/de novo GN with a higher risk of rejection and worse allograft survival.

Methods

• Researchers compared 120 renal transplant recipients with biopsy-proven recurrent or de novo primary GN with two matched control groups including 120 transplant recipients with nonrecurrent primary GN (nonrecurrent GN group) and 120 transplant recipients with non-GN etiology (non-GN group).
• Allograft loss was the primary outcome, and biopsy-confirmed cellular or antibody-mediated rejection were the secondary outcomes.

Results

• Findings demonstrated that after a median follow-up of 96 (IQR: 56–149) months, 54.2% (n = 65), 16.7% (n = 20) and 8.3% (n = 10) of patients reached primary outcome in recurrent/de novo GN, nonrecurrent GN and non-GN groups, respectively.
• In recurrent/de novo GN group, a significantly higher allograft loss was reported, compared to nonrecurrent GN and non-GN groups (p < 0.001).
• At 10 years, allograft loss rates in recurrent/de novoGN group were 54.2%, 53.2% and 33.4% for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and IgA nephropathy cases, respectively.
• Data also showed that biopsy-confirmed rejection rate was significantly higher in the recurrent/de novo GN group (n = 25, 20.8%) compared to non-GN (n = 8, 6.7%) group (p = 0.001).