[PLASMA RENIN ACTIVITY AND ALDOSTERONE IN RENAL TRANSPLANT PATIENTS]

(Background) It has become evident in recent year that aldosterone has a pathogenic role in hypertension, heart failure and renal disease. Elevation of aldosterone occurs in a certain fraction of hemodialysis patients, and the adverse effects of hyperaldosteronism could pose a problem after kidney transplantation. Long-term effects of aldosterone level in renal transplant recipients remain unknown. (Materials and methods) All recipients underwent transplantation between 1996 and 2018 in Niigata university hospital were included in the study. Plasma renin activity (PRA) and plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) were retrospectively analyzed in 210 recipients before and after kidney transplantation. (Results) Sixty percent of recipients had higher PRA than normal upper limit before and after transplantation. The use of angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) or angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) was significantly more frequent in the patients with hyperreninemia than those without one after transplantation. Sixty percent of recipients had higher PAC than normal upper limit before transplantation and it spontaneously decreased to normal level after transplantation in most of them. There was no significant correlation between PAC and blood pressure, recipient age, and renal graft function after transplantation. We divided the patients into two groups, with and without post-transplant hyperaldosteronemia. The patients with post-transplant hyperaldosteronemia (n=29) had higher diastolic blood pressure and less use of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors than those with normal PAC level. (Conclusions) The use of RAAS inhibitors should be considered in post-transplant hyperaldosteronemia patients to control blood pressure and to save their long-term renal graft and heart function.