Abstract
Background
Sarcopenia (reduced skeletal muscle mass) has been associated with serious infection in liver transplant recipients. We analyzed the association of sarcopenia and early post-surgical infections in kidney transplant recipients.
Methods
Retrospective cohort study of 125 patients underwent kidney transplantation from 2010 to 2014 at University of Kentucky Medical Center. Sarcopenia was diagnosed by measuring the skeletal muscle mass on computed tomography imaging obtained during the pre-transplant evaluation using SliceOmatic 5.0 software at L3 level (≤ 52.4 cm2/m2 in males and ≤ 38.5 cm2/m2 in females). Early post-transplant infections were confirmed by positive culture from blood, urine, and/or peritoneal fluid within 30 days after kidney transplantation. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to identify variables predictive of post- surgical infection and Risk Ratio (RR) was obtained, with a P-value of < 0.05. The statistical analysis was performed with STATA version 12.0 (College Station, Texas).
Results
Among 125 patients, 52 (41.6%) were identified with sarcopenia, 110 (88.0%) patients were white, 76 (60.8%) male, with a median age of 56 (range 20–72) at the time of transplant. Diabetes was reported in 50 (40.0%) patients, obesity in 64 (51.6%) patients and smoking in 43 (34.6%) patients. Six (4.8%) patients had graft failure. Infections were identified in 22 (17.6%) patients, more than one source of infection was reported in 4 (3.2%) cases. The most common infections were urinary tract infection in 13 (10.4%) patients and bacteremia in 5 (4.0%) patients. The median time to development of infection was 9 days (range 1–27). In the bivariate analysis, sarcopenia was associated with high risk of post-surgical infections (RR 2.45; 95% CI 1.10–5.44). In multivariable analysis, sarcopenia was a significant independent predictor of infection (RR 2.58; 95% CI 1.20–5.52). None associations were found with other variables; age over 40 years, male sex, smoking, obesity and diabetes.
Conclusion
Our study suggested that sarcopenia was associated with an increased risk of early post-surgical infection in kidney transplant recipients.
Disclosures
All authors: No reported disclosures.
Low skeletal muscle mass is associated with mortality in kidney transplant recipients
