engleski

Hypertension in Elderly Patients with a Kidney Transplant

Introduction: A large number of patients today with terminal kidney failure are elderly. For a small number of these elderly patients a kidney transplant is a possible method of treatment for terminal kidney failure. Hypertension appears after a transplant among a large number of these patients because the risk of hypertension is higher among this age group of transplant patients. Aim: The goal of this work was to investigate the prevalence of hypertension among kidney transplant patients above the age of 65 and to analyze anti-hypertension therapy. Methods: The investigation included 27 patients, 15 male and 12 female, above the age of 65 who received a kidney transplant at the Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka. The average age of the patients was 71.2±5.6 years. The average time spent on dialysis before the transplant was 2.7±2.1 years. The amount of time that had passed since the transplant was 6.6±4.6 years. The average values of creatinine were 135±38.2 μmol/L. Results: Of the number of patients analyzed, 25 had hypertension. Among all of the patients hypertension appeared within the first year after the transplant. In the anti-hypertension therapy five patients were taking one antihypertensive drug, 14 patients were taking two drugs and six patients were taking three or more drugs. The most frequently taken medicine was a calcium channel blocker and beta blocker. Of the analyzed patients, 13 achieved the target values for blood pressure. Conclusion: From the data acquired we can conclude that most older kidney transplant patients have hypertension. Also, in half of these patients the target values for blood pressure were achieved. The most frequently used anti-hypertensives among older patients were calcium chanell blokers.

kidney transplantation; hypertension

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