Sexual maturation was evaluated in 21 living related donor renal transplant boys who were receiving a combination of immunosuppressive treatment including cyclosporine A, prednisolone, azathioprine and were followed for 2 years posttransplant. All transplant boys underwent endocrinologic evaluation, and measurement of height, penile length, testicular volume. Tanner stage and bone age. Our results showed that height SDS in 33.3% were greater than 2 SD below the mean for age. Pure retarded sexual maturation was observed in 23.8% of boys. There was no significant correlation between any of the maturation parameters and the duration of uraemia, interval since transplantation, age at transplantation, or dialysis duration (P > 0.05). Serum testosterone level was significantly correlated with current age, and maturation parameters (P < 0.05). There was significant increase in serum creatinine level among transplant boys growing poorly (P = 0.04). In conclusion, these data indicated that diminished renal function and predinsolone treatment appear to be additive in delaying maturation in some boys after kidney transplantation. Moreover, renal transplant boys maintained on triple immunosuppressive treatment showed acceptable sexual maturation in the majority of patients |
