Mortality risk for kidney transplant candidates with diabetes: a population cohort study

It is unclear whether kidney transplant candidates with diabetes have equitable transplantation opportunities or have divergent survival probabilities stratified by kidney replacement therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate these two issues using national transplant registry data in the UK.

A cohort study was undertaken of prospectively collected registry data of all wait-listed people with kidney failure receiving dialysis in the UK. All people listed for their first kidney-alone transplant between 2000 and 2019 were included. Stratification was done for cause of kidney failure. Primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Time-to-death from listing was analysed using adjusted non-proportional hazard Cox regression models, with transplantation handled as a time-dependent covariate.

A total of 47,917 wait-listed people with kidney failure formed the total study cohort, of whom 6594 (13.8%) had diabetes classified as cause of kidney failure. People with kidney failure with diabetes comprised 27.6% of the cohort (n=3681/13,359) that did not proceed to transplantation vs only 8.4% (n=2913/34,558) of the cohort that received a transplant (p<0.001). Kidney transplant candidates with diabetes were more likely to be older, of male sex and of ethnic minority background compared with those without diabetes. In an adjusted analysis, compared with remaining on dialysis, any kidney transplant provided survival benefit for wait-listed kidney transplant candidates regardless of diabetes as cause of kidney failure (RR 0.26 [95% CI 0.25, 0.27], p<0.001).

Kidney transplant candidates with diabetes have a lower chance of transplantation despite better survival after kidney transplantation vs remaining on dialysis. The reasons for this require further investigation to ensure equal transplantation opportunities.