Clinical Outcomes of Belgian Children Following Kidney Transplantation, Comparative Analysis from 2005 to 2022

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the annual cross-sectional data on the outcome of all patients followed after pediatric kidney transplantation in Belgium, as collected for the Convention of Pediatric Nephrology from 2018-2022. During this period, a total of 569 entries of individual follow-up data were included in the registry with a mean of 113.8 entries annually, mean follow-up time was 5.6 years post-transplantation. Most patients were classified as having chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 2 or 3 (36.4% and 41.3% respectively). The mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was lower compared to the 2005 cohort (61.8 + 25.4 ml/min/1.73 m² vs. 68.1 + 17 ml/min/1.73 m², respectively (p<0.05)). eGFR decreased with the number of years of follow-up, which was particularly evident in boys but not in girls. We compared our findings to the Belgian registry cohort of 2005 and to the recently published data from North-American and European registries. Overall, we observed a positive evolution in growth and cardiovascular outcomes, with mean height and blood pressure standard deviation scores (SDS) significantly improving compared to both the 2005 and the international cohorts.