F. Karipineni1, A. Parsikia1, M. Shaikh1, J. Ortiz1, A. Joshi1 1Albert Einstein Medical Center,Department Of Surgery,Philadelphia, PA, USA
Introduction: Asians represent the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Despite significant diversity within the group, many transplant studies treat Asians as a homogeneous entity. We compared patient and graft survival among major Asian ethnicities to determine whether any subgroup has superior outcomes.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of kidney transplants on Asian patients between 2001 and 2012. Covariates included gender, age, comorbidities, and donor category. Primary outcomes included one-year patient and graft survival. Secondary outcomes included delayed graft function and cause of rejection and death.
Results: 91 Asian patients were identified. Due to the large proportion of Chinese patients (n=37), we grouped other Asians into one entity (n=54) for statistical comparison among Chinese, other Asians, and Whites (n=346). Chinese subjects had significantly lower body mass index (BMI) (p=0.001) and had the lowest proportion of living donors (p<0.001). Patient survival was highest in our Chinese cohort (p<0.001), while graft survival did not differ.
Conclusion: Our study confirms outcomes differences among Asian subgroups in kidney transplantation. Chinese demonstrate better patient survival at one year than Whites and non-Chinese Asians despite fewer live donors. Lower BMI scores may partly explain this. Larger, long-term studies are needed to elucidate outcome disparities among Asian subgroups.