Prevalence of silent gastrointestinal complications in maintenance renal transplant population

الملخص EN

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 mycophenolate sodium (EC-MPS, Myfortic?) would improve symptom scores.

This was a singlecenter, open-label, non-randomized, prospective study.

Patients without any history of GI complaints were evaluated by means of the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS), with subsequent 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.