Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Post-Transplant Diabetes Mellitus among Renal Transplant Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Objective

To examine the association between HCV infection and the occurrence of post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) among renal transplant patients.

Design

Meta-analysis of observational studies.

Data Sources

We retrieved studies published in any language by systematically searching Medline, and Embase and by manually examining the references of the original articles, reviews, and monographs retrieved.

Review Methods

We included cohort and case-control studies reporting relative risk estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for PTDM occurrence with HCV after renal transplantation. Thirteen studies providing information on a total of 30,099 unique patients were included in our meta-analysis.

Results

Study-specific relative risks were weighted by the inverse of their variance to obtain fixed- and random-effects pooled estimates. The pooled relative risk (RR) for PTDM after RT was 2.73 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.94; 3.83 (10 studies). In a stratified analysis including only large studies (2 studies), the pooled RR was 1.36 (95% CI, 1.21; 1.54). Egger's regression test showed some evidence of publication bias (p=0.0001), but our sensitivity analysis showed that this issue did not meaningfully change the results.

Conclusions

Our study shows a marked increase of the risk of post-transplant diabetes mellitus in anti-hepatitis C virus-positive renal transplant recipients. The excess risk of death in hepatitis C virus-positive renal transplant recipients may be at least partially attributed to post-transplant diabetes mellitus with its attendant complications.