Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) because it reverses many complications of chronic kidney disease, improves the quality of life and prolongs patient survival. However, most ESRD patients are treated with chronic haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis before receiving a kidney transplant. During dialysis treatment disturbances in clinical parameters such as anaemia, disturbed mineral metabolism and dyslipidaemia commonly occur. Kidney transplantation should correct or improve many of these disturbances, but its exact impact is incompletely understood.
The ERA-EDTA Registry collects data both on dialysis patients and on transplanted patients via national and regional renal registries in Europe. Recently, the ERA-EDTA Registry has extended their core dataset and started to collect a selection of clinical performance indicators. These data enable us to evaluate and quantify changes of several clinical parameters related to the transition from dialysis treatment to kidney transplantation. These changes could potentially explain the better outcomes that are related to kidney transplantation when compared to dialysis treatment.
With this study we therefore aim to assess to what extent the transition from dialysis treatment to kidney transplantation is related to changes in mineral metabolism, iron status, lipid profile and inflammatory status.
If we can show that disturbances in clinical parameters such as anaemia, disordered mineral metabolism and dyslipidaemia normalize (soon) after kidney transplantation, the findings of this study could strengthen the evidence supporting the importance of receiving a kidney transplant. This may further increase awareness among policy makers and increase initiatives that promote kidney transplantation.
The study results will increase the understanding of physiological changes in kidney transplant recipients and could help to adjust the treatment strategy in these patients, for example regarding the use of medication, such as recombinant erythropoietin, phosphate binders and vitamin D. Furthermore, the results of this study may provide some information on the prognosis of patients who receive a kidney transplant.