Bacterial endocarditis is more likely to develop among patients on a waiting list for a kidney transplant than among kidney transplant recipients, data show.

 

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Renal Data System, both in Minneapolis, studied 282 renal transplant patients and 549 waiting list patients hospitalized with bacterial endocarditis.


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The incidence rates of bacterial endocarditis per 1000 patient-years were 5.6 for waiting list patients compared with 2.6 for deceased-donor transplant recipients and 1.8 for living-donor transplant patients, according to a report in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation (2008; published online ahead of print).

 

In-hospital mortality rates were 16% for the renal transplant group and 18.6% for the waiting list patients. Two-year post-endocarditis survival rates were 58% for transplant recipients and 41% for waiting list patients.