Renal function and blood pressure in patients treated with cyclosporin A for uveitis.

Renal function has been evaluated in 21 patients treated with cyclosporin A (CyA) for 9 months for idiopathic uveitis. Serum creatinine, which was 82 mumol.l-1 before treatment, was significantly elevated after 1 month (111 mumol.l-1). After 9 months of treatment, and despite a decrease in CyA dosage, the mean plasma creatinine remained elevated at 132 mumol.l-1. Hypertension developed in 6 patients, five of them being concomitantly treated with corticosteroids. In 8 patients serum creatinine 3 months after CyA had been stopped had decreased from 148 to 93 mumol.l-1. Two of those patients remained hypertensive 3 months after CyA treatment had ceased. In patients with idiopathic uveitis CyA induces a reversible increase in serum creatinine. However the reversibility of such a biochemical marker does not preclude a histopathological lesion. Chronic renal damage may be responsible for the persistence of hypertension after cessation of CyA treatment.