Spectrum of Coronary Angiographic Findings in Potential Renal Transplant Recipients in a Tertiary Care Center of Nepal

Background: Studies emphasizing the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and the diversity of coronary lesions among asymptomatic renal transplant recipients (RTRs) are few and far between in Nepal. Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, a cohort of potential RTRs who were subjected to coronary angiography (CAG) as a part of both routine pre-op evaluation and therapeutic modality were enrolled and the spectrum of coronary angiographic lesions was reported. Significant CAD was defined by angiography as ≥ 70% stenosis. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was done for significant lesions. Results: A total of 60 patients (mean age: 53.7 ± 7.2 years, 43 males and 17 females) formed the subjects of the study. Diabetes was the commonest cause of ESRD (61.7%) with the mean duration of ESRD being 4.3 ± 2.2 years. Of the patients, 86.7% were routinely subjected to CAG and the remaining 13.3% presented with acute coronary syndrome. The right femoral artery was the most common access vessel (81.7%). CAD was present in 30/60 patients (50%). The left anterior descending artery was the most common culprit vessel (46.7%), followed by the left circumflex artery (38.3%). Among the routine CAG group, 42.3% had some form of CAD, the highest proportion of which was triple vessel disease (23.3%). Both double vessel disease and triple vessel disease were found to be highly prevalent in patients with hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and in smokers. The angiographic lesions were predominantly of discrete (41%), diffuse (35.9%), and eccentric (46.2%) types, had tandem arrangement (58.9%) with moderate angulation (56.4%), and were irregular (58.9%) in contour. A total of 3 ostial (7.7%) and 9 calcified (23.1%) lesions were found to be present. Chronic total occlusion and bifurcation lesions were observed in 4 (10.3%) and 5 (12.8%) cases, respectively. Six (15.4%) patients had well-developed collaterals. Twenty-one (53.8%) patients underwent PCI and 3 (7.7%) patients underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. Type B2 was the most common lesion (46.2%). Conclusion: Asymptomatic ESRD patients on the renal transplant list were found to have a high prevalence of CAD. CAG can be an efficient screening alternative for the detection of significant CAD among these patients.