Platelet Dysfunction and Coronary Artery Disease after Pediatric Kidney Transplantation

Platelet Dysfunction and Coronary Artery Disease after Pediatric Kidney Transplantation

Children and adolescents undergoing kidney transplantation have an inordinately higher rate of early onset coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to age- and gender-matched controls. As allograft and patient survival rates have improved pediatric kidney transplant recipients are living longer and developing associated cardiac risk factors. As a result, CAD is the most common cause of death in this patient population. We hypothesized that platelet dysfunction would correlate with the severity of CAD found by EBCT in young adults who underwent a kidney transplant as a child or adolescent.