Early Development of Metabolic Syndrome in Patients Subjected to Lung Transplantation

Cardiovascular disease is a common cause of morbidity and mortality after solid organ transplantation, due to a combination of pre-existing cardiovascular risk factors and immunosuppressive drug toxicity. The prevalence of new-onset hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome was assessed after lung transplantation in a cohort of 67 patients (mean age: 48±14 years). The prevalence of hypertension increased from 19.4% to 70.1 % at the 3-year follow-up visit (p<0.01). The concomitant prevalence of diabetes and dyslipidemia raised from 13.4% to 31.3%, and from 6.0% to 40.3%, respectively (p<0.01 for both), and body mass index increased from 22.4±3.7 to 26.1±3.9 kg/m2 (p<0.01). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased from 3.0% to 23.9% after the first year, to remain stable thereafter, associated with a strict control of cardiovascular risk factors. A large number of lung transplant recipients develop new-onset hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia after transplantation, and in more than one fifth metabolic syndrome can be diagnosed after the first year. The increased cardiovascular risk of these patients should be taken into account during follow-up, to better define a proper and timely cardiovascular prevention. Adequate control of cardiovascular risk factors, preventing further metabolic syndrome development, is recommended and feasible in lung transplant recipients.