Overweight young female kidney donors have low renal functional reserve post-donation

Maintenance of adequate renal function after living kidney donation is important for donor outcome. Overweight donors, in particular, may have an increased risk for end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), and young female donors have an increased preeclampsia risk. Both of these risks may be associated with low postdonation renal functional reserve (RFR). Because we previously found that higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with lower postdonation RFR, we now studied the relationship between BMI and RFR in young female donors. RFR, the rise in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) ( ¹²⁵I-iothalamate clearance) during dopamine, was measured in female donors (<45 yr) before and after kidney donation. Donors who are overweight (BMI >25) and nonoverweight donors were compared by Student’s t-test; the association was subsequently explored with regression analysis. We included 105 female donors [age 41 (36–44) median(IQR)] with a BMI of 25 (22–27) kg/m ². Predonation GFR was 118 (17) ml/min [mean(SD)] rising to 128 (19) ml/min during dopamine; mean RFR was 10 (10) ml/min. Postdonation GFR was 76 (13) ml/min, rising to 80 (12); RFR was 4 (6) ml/min (P < 0.001 vs. predonation). In overweight donors, RFR was fully lost after donation (1 ml/min vs. 10 ml/min predonation, P < 0.001), and BMI was inversely associated with RFR after donation, independent of confounders (standardized β 0.37, P = 0.02). Reduced RFR might associate with the risk of preeclampsia and ESKD in kidney donors. Prospective studies should explore whether RFR is related to preeclampsia and whether BMI reduction before conception is of benefit to overweight female kidney donors during and after pregnancy.