A Randomized Controlled Trial of Envarsus Versus Immediate Release Tacrolimus in Kidney Transplant Recipients With Delayed Graft Function

Global trends of delayed graft function in kidney transplantation from 2013 to 2023: a bibliometric analysis

Delayed graft function (DGF) is an early complication after kidney transplantation. The literature on DGF has experienced substantial growth. However, there is a lack of bibliometric analysis of DGF. This study aimed to analyze the scientific outputs of DGF and explore its hotspots from 2013 to 2023 by using CiteSpace and VOSviewer. The 2058 pieces of literature collected in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2023 were visually analyzed in terms of the annual number of publications, authors, countries, journals, literature co-citations, and keyword clustering by using CiteSpace and VOSviewer. We found that the number of papers published in the past ten years showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing; 2021 was the year with the most posts. The largest number of papers was published by the University of California System, and the largest number of papers was published by the United States. The top five keyword frequency rankings are: 'delayed graft function', 'kidney transplantation', 'renal transplantation', 'survival', and 'recipients'. These emerging trends include 'brain death donors', 'blood absence re-injection injuries', 'tacrolimus', 'older donors and recipients', and 'artificial intelligence and DGF'. In summary, this study reveals the authors and institutions that could be cooperated with and discusses the research hotspots in the past ten years. It provides a reference and direction for future research and application of DGF.

Serum β2-Microglobulin Predicts Time to Recovery of Delayed Graft Function in Kidney Transplant Recipients

BACKGROUND

Delayed graft function (DGF) after kidney transplantation is associated with adverse patients and allograft outcomes. A longer duration of DGF is predictive of worse graft outcomes compared to a shorter duration. Posttransplant serum β2-microglobulin (B2M) is associated with long-term graft outcomes, but its relationship with DGF recovery is unknown.

METHODS

We included all kidney-only transplant recipients with DGF enrolled in the E-DGF trial. Duration of DGF was defined as the interval between the transplant and the last dialysis session. We analyzed the association of standardized serum creatinine (Scr) and B2M on postoperative Days (POD) 1-7 during the subsequent days of DGF with the recovery of DGF.

RESULTS

A total of 97 recipients with DGF were included. The mean duration of DGF was 11.0 ± 11.2 days. Higher Scr was not associated with the duration of DGF in unadjusted or adjusted models. Higher standardized B2M, in contrast, was associated with a prolonged duration of DGF. This association remained in models adjusting for baseline characteristics from POD 2 (3.19 days longer, 95% CI: 0.46-5.93; p = 0.02) through Day 6 of DGF (4.97 days longer, 95% CI: 0.75-9.20; p = 0.02). There was minimal change in mean Scr (0.01 ± 0. 10 mg/dL per day; p = 0.32), while B2M significantly decreased as the time to recovery approached (-0.14 ± 0.05 mg/L per day; p = 0.006), among recipients with DGF.

CONCLUSION

B2M is more strongly associated with DGF recovery than Scr. Posttransplant B2M may be an important biomarker to monitor during DGF.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03864926.