Consensus guidelines of cardiovascular risk assessment in kidney transplantation in Saudi Arabia: Review of current practice, evidence, and recommendations.

Screening for cardiovascular (CV) disease before transplant is common. However, the clinical utility of screening asymptomatic transplant candidates remains unclear. There is a large degree of variation among the practices of the different transplant centers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and among the international guidelines. Opinions are mostly based on mixed observational data with a great potential for bias. When compared to the Western countries, renal-transplant candidates in the KSA are likely to have longer dialysis vintage, higher prevalence of catheter use, higher rate of uncontrolled hyperparathyroidism, and high prevalence of diabetes. These factors are likely to expose renal-transplant candidates to a higher CV risk than those in Western countries. In the absence of any published guideline for CV risk assessment of the renal-transplant candidate in the KSA, we present these guidelines as the first published guidelines in the KSA. These guidelines review the pertinent aspects from the most recent American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for cardiac disease evaluation and management among kidney-transplant candidates and reflect on the local practices in the KSA. These guidelines overview many of the daily- encountered challenges in renal transplantation such as the indications for stress testing, screening coronary angiogram and prophylactic revascularization, screening and management of pulmonary hypertension, cardiac surveillance while on the waiting list and duration of dual-antiplatelet therapy before renal transplant. These guidelines were reviewed by a team of consultant nephrologists, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, and transplant surgeons from six major transplant centers in the KSA. The guidelines aim to standardize the practices of CV risk assessment in kidney transplantation in the KSA, according to the most up-to-date available evidence. The expected impact of these guidelines on the current practices is also reviewed here.

Efficacy and safety of non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants post-kidney transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) were developed as alternatives to vitamin K antagonists, primarily warfarin, as they do not require routine monitoring and have limited drug-drug and drug-food interactions. However, the efficacy and safety of these agents in kidney transplantation are not well studied. AIM: To assess the profile and safety of NOACs for patients who had kidney transplantation, and to provide recommendations and guidelines on therapeutic strategies in these patients. METHODS: This was a retrospective study carried out among adult patients who were actively on the following NOACs (apixaban, rivaroxaban or dabigatran) in our renal transplantation program from December 2015 to December 2016. The patients were identified primarily through electronic medical record system (patient data linkage). Data on the clinical and laboratory profile of the patients were retrieved and analyzed with SPSS 22.0. RESULTS: Complete data on 42 renal transplant patients were retrieved: 59.5% males, 90.5% were whites and 66.7% were older than 60 years old. The mean duration since renal transplantation of the patients was 8.8 ± 7.4 years. The most common risk factors for the development of end-stage renal disease in the subjects were hypertension (19.0%), polycystic kidney disease (19.0%), followed by diabetic nephropathy (16.7%) and chronic glomerulonephritis (16.7%). The main indications for NOACs use in the cohort were atrial fibrillation in 25 patients (59.5%) and venous thromboembolism in 10 patients (23.8%). Overall, 29 patients (69%) were treated with apixaban, 10 patients (23.8%) with rivaroxaban and 3 patients (7.14%) with dabigatran. No (0%) thromboembolic events were observed during the one-year period, but 3 (7.1%) bleeding events occurred in the cohort consisting of 1 patient treated with rivaroxaban 15 mg daily and 2 patients who received apixaban 2.5 mg twice daily. There were no significant changes in serum tacrolimus level three days after the initiation of NOACs among patients treated with tacrolimus (pre- and post-NOACs tacrolimus levels were 7.2516 and 7.8867 ng/mL, P = 0.55, respectively). Also, after one-year of treatment with NOACs there were no significant changes in the pre- and post-NOACs serum creatinine level (P = 0.772) and estimated glomerular filtration rates (P = 0.232). CONCLUSION: No thromboembolic events or significant changes in renal profile were observed in our cohort of kidney transplant recipients who were treated with NOACs for at least a year. However, a few bleeding events were observed. This calls for further well-planned randomized controlled trials to assess the efficacy and safety of NOACs among renal transplant recipients.