Influence of Familial Hypertension of the Donor on the Blood Pressure and Antihypertensive Therapy of Kidney Graft Recipients

Abstract

The possibility that some hereditary factors favoring the development of ‘essential’ hypertension in man may act through modification of kidney function was evaluated in a retrospective study of 36 renal transplant recipients followed for 1 year. The patients were divided into two groups of 18 subjects each, matched for age, sex, body surface area, familial hypertension, duration of hemodialysis before transplantation and original kidney disease. In the first group, at least one of the donor’s parents was hypertensive and in the second group all the members of the donor’s family were normotensive. Plasma creatinine, daily dose of prednisone, number of rejection episodes and blood pressure were almost the same in both groups, but the requirement for antihypertensive therapy was significantly greater in the first group during the first 4 months after transplantation (p < 0.05). Therefore, it seems reasonable to consider that there is some influence of familial existence of hypertension on the renal pressure regulatory mechanisms.