Is Vitamin D Deficiency Associated With Metabolic Syndrome in Renal Transplant Recipients?

Renal transplantation is the gold standard method for the treatment of end-stage renal failure. The main causes of graft loss are chronic allograft dysfunction and death with functioning graft due to cardiovascular diseases. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is common in renal transplant recipients (RTRs). Vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency is common in RTRs. Studies suggest that vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency may lead to the development of MetS apart from impairment in calcium and bone metabolism. We aimed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and MetS in patients with renal transplantation. One hundred forty-one RTRs were included in the study. MetS prevalence was 63.8%. Mean vitamin D level was 17.2 ± 10. 2 ng/mL. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to vitamin D level. Patients with vitamin D levels below 25 ng/mL were in group 1; those above were group 2. There were no differences regarding the presence of metabolic syndrome; presence of diabetes mellitus; hypertension; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; waist circumference; glucose; creatinine; triglyceride; or HDL level between groups (P > .05). The area under curves (confidence interval [CI] 95%) of vitamin D level to predict MetS were 0.58 (0.48-0.68) (P > .05). We did not find any relationship between vitamin D level and MetS. This result may be related to the small sample size of our study. Investigation of this relationship with large study groups are needed to clearly determine this relationship.