Pretransplant uric acid levels may be predictive for prognosis of renal transplant donors.

Background: The living kidney donor counseling prior to the operation may be helpful to learn how to properly care for the remaining single kidney for the rest of their lives. Worsening kidney function is associated with elevated serum uric acid (UA) levels. In this study, we compared the baseline laboratory findings of renal transplant donors with their follow-up laboratory values.

Methods: The study consisted of 173 adult donors including 91 females and 82 males with a mean age of 46.82 ± 11.31 years. The follow-up clinical and laboratory examinations were performed on the third day at the end of the first and the sixth months of the surgery. According to donor's creatinine levels we constituted two groups: high creatinine and normal creatinine.

Results: Patients within the high creatinine group had significantly higher mean serum UA levels when compared with the normal creatinine group. In multivariate analysis, among the other effective variables, UA level alone was found to be the most effective parameter predicting the post-transplant creatinine levels (p = 0.004, odds ratio: 12.4, 95% CI: 2.3-68.3) at sixth month post-transplantation. In the ROC analysis for the effects of UA, the following cutoff values were found: >6 mg/dL in men (sensitivity 81.3%, specificity 76.9%, positive predictive value 89.7%, negative predictive value 62.5%, accuracy 80%) and ≥5 mg/dL in women (sensitivity 72.2, specificity 74.4%, positive predictive value 89.7%, negative predictive value 62.5%, accuracy: 73.7%).

Conclusion: Pretransplant serum UA levels can give important clues regarding the renal functions of the donors during the postoperative period.