Objectives: The initial aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of influencing atherosclerosis in hyperlipidaemic renal transplant patients by lowering blood lipids with gemfibrozil treatment.
Design: Although this double-blind, randomized trial was stopped after 6 months owing to the suspicion of drug interference, we report here on the results of baseline ultrasonographic examinations.
Setting: The outpatient clinic at the Department of Transplantation Surgery, Huddinge University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden.
Subjects and methods: The carotid arteries were examined in 16 out of the 19 kidney transplant patients included in the study using an ultrasonographic duplex scanner.
Main outcome measures: Plaque occurrence and the common carotid intima-media thickness of the renal transplant recipients were compared to the same parameters in a normotensive control group of approximately the same age from a previous study.
Results: An increased prevalence of plaque (75% of the patients having plaque on one or both sides) was seen in the hyperlipidaemic renal transplant patients in comparison with the control group (16%; P < 0.001). The common carotid intima-media complex was thicker (P < 0.05), and the lumen diameter and the calculated cross-sectional intima-media area were greater (P < 0.01-0.001) in the transplant recipients.
Conclusions: Markedly increased atherosclerotic wall changes are seen in the carotid arteries of patients with hyperlipidaemia after renal transplantation.