Prevalence of silent gastrointestinal complications in maintenance renal transplant population

This study aims to determine the prevalence of silent GI complications within a stable renal transplant population and to investigate whether the conversion to enteric-coated myco-phenolate sodium (EC-MPS, Myfortic;) would improve symptom scores. This was a single-center, open-label, non-ra...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Teplitsky Susan, Rosaasen Nicola, Hossain Mohammad, Dyck Jennifer, Fox Todd, Shoker Ahmed
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2010-01-01
Series:Saudi Journal of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation
Online Access:http://www.sjkdt.org/article.asp?issn=1319-2442;year=2010;volume=21;issue=4;spage=628;epage=635;aulast=Teplitsky
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Summary:This study aims to determine the prevalence of silent GI complications within a stable renal transplant population and to investigate whether the conversion to enteric-coated myco-phenolate sodium (EC-MPS, Myfortic;) would improve symptom scores. This was a single-center, open-label, non-randomized, prospective study. Patients without any history of GI com-plaints were evaluated by means of the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS), with subse-quent switch to EC-MPS in a group of patients. Silent complications were defined as patients who voiced no GI complaints at clinic visits despite a score of ≥ 2 on GSRS scale. A total of 236 stable patients participated in the trial. The prevalence of baseline scores ≥ 2 was relatively high with abdominal pain 29.66%, reflux 37.28%, indigestion 50%, constipation 58.47% and diarrhea 33.4%. Of 236 patients, 80 were converted to EC-MPS. There was statistically significant improvement on all scales in the subgroup of patients with GSRS score ≥ 2 (P< 0.05). In conclusion, the GSRS scale identified a high percentage of silent gastrointestinal complications in this renal transplant population. The converted patients with higher GSRS scores reported a sustained improvement.
ISSN:1319-2442