Severe uncontrolled secondary hyperparathyroidism and kidney transplantation history are both risk factors for fractures in hemodialyzed patients. Moreover, patients who return to dialysis after transplant failure have more severe infections/anemia and higher mortality risk than transplant-naive patients starting dialysis with native kidneys. In this context, our aim was to test the hypothesis that transplant failure patients have more secondary hyperparathyroidism than transplant-naive patients.

We retrospectively compared 29 transplant failure patients to 58 transplant-naive patients matched for age, sex, chronic kidney disease duration and diabetes condition (1 transplant failure/2 transplant-naive ratio), who started dialysis between 2010 and 2014. Clinical and biological data were collected at baseline, 6 and 12 months.

At baseline, neither serum parathyroid hormone (transplant-naive: 386±286pg/mL; transplant failure: 547±652pg/mL) nor serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (transplant-naive: 27.8±17.0μg/L, transplant failure: 31.1±14.9μg/L) differed between groups. However, serum parathyroid hormone at 12 months and the proportion of patients with uncontrolled secondary hyperparathyroidism (parathyroid hormone>540pg/mL, KDIGO criteria) were significantly higher in transplant failure than in transplant-naive (parathyroid hormone: 286±205 vs. 462±449, P<0.01; uncontrolled secondary hyperparathyroidism: 30% vs. 13%, P<0.01, respectively). Within the transplant failure group, patients with uncontrolled secondary hyperparathyroidism at 12 months were younger than patients with normal or low parathyroid hormone.

This retrospective and monocentric study suggests that transplant failure patients are more likely to develop secondary hyperparathyroidism. Thus, finding high serum parathyroid hormone in young transplant failure patients, who are expected to undergo further transplantations, should incite physicians to treat early and more aggressively this complication.