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Renal transplant recipients have increased risk of premature death compared to a non transplant population. Valderhaug and colleagues report that early diagnosed hyperglycemia after renal transplantation is associated with increased long term mortality from any cause among renal transplant patients. Valderhaug also reports that the prevalence of new-onset diabetes after renal transplantation has been reduced during the last decades, possible due to improvements in immunosuppressive therapy, lower infection rates and reduced rejection episodes. Patients with new-onset diabetes often have no symptoms and are thus unaware of the increased risk they may possess. Valderhaug and colleagues have developed a screening tool for the identification of new-onset diabetes after renal transplantation that may be cost-effective in the identification of patients with undetected diabetes and increased long term mortality risk after renal transplantation.
About the author
Tone G Valderhaug, MD PhD is a board approved specialist in internal medicine. She is working as a consultant in obesity and type 2 diabetes at Division of Medicine, Dep. of Endocrinology, Akershus University hospital HF, Lørenskog, Norway. She got her PhD in glucose metabolism after renal transplantation in 2012 at the University of Oslo.
