Rapid improvement in nerve conduction velocity following renal transplantation.

In 12 patients with chronic renal failure who received kidney transplants from either cadavers (6) or related living donors (6), rapid improvement in median sensory and motor nerve conduction velocities (NCVs) was observed within a few days after transplantation. The postoperative improvement in median sensory NCV was found to bear a statistically significant negative correlation with creatinine and myo-inositol concentrations. We suggest that metabolic phenomena are responsible for the rapid improvement in median sensory NCV following renal transplantation. The close relationship between myo-inositol and the median sensory NCV following transplantation suggests that elevated plasma myo-inositol concentrations may be related to nerve conduction abnormalities in uremic polyneuropathy.