Albuminuria As a Risk Factor for Development of Chronic Kidney Disease and Short-Term Mortality Following Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

Microalbuminuria is a risk factor for the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD), cardiovascular disease and mortality in the general population. We studied if the incidence of microalbuminuria following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) could be a warning sign of the future CKD and all-cause mortality.

A 1-year prospective cohort study was conducted in 29 patients (46.3±12.5 years) receiving allogeneic myeloablative SCT. Patients with prevalent CKD and those who died by 1 month after SCT were excluded from the cohort. Albumin to creatinine ratio (ACR) in a morning urine sample was consecutively measured before conditioning therapy (baseline), at the time of SCT, days 7 and 14, and 1 month after SCT. Microalbuminuria was defined as ACR ≥30mg/girl. CKD was defined as a decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) less than 60 ml/min/1.73m², sustained at least for 3 months. Cumulative incidence of CKD or mortality or both was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) of developing these outcomes within 1 year, adjusted for covariates with clinical and statistical significance.

The prevalence of microalbuminuria was 6.9% at baseline, and increased to 62.1% at the day of SCT. It varied among the time points; 62.1% on day 7, 48.3% on day 14 and 51.7% on 1 month, respectively. Mortality within 1 year was 27.6%. Cumulative incidence of CKD or mortality or both was significantly higher in the group with □emicroalbuminuria on 1 month' than in the opposite. [figure1] In addition, the presence of □emicroalbuminuria on 1 month' was significantly associated with each outcome: for CKD, HR 14.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.88 to 121, P=0.0006; for death, HR 11.7, 95% CI 1.58 to 252, P=0.0138; for either CKD or death, HR 16.6, 95% CI 3.79 to 151, P=0.0001, respectively.

The incidence of microalbuminuria following SCT is a promising predictor of the development of CKD and short-term mortality.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.