Mitigating the Disparate Impacts of Longevity Matching of Kidney Transplants

In this issue of AJKD, Asfour et al1 describe racially disparate impacts of the longevity-matching component of the Kidney Allocation System (KAS) that gives priority for high-longevity kidneys (kidney donor profile index [KDPI] ≤20%) to transplant candidates in the top 20% of estimated post-transplant survival (EPTS) scores (EPTS≤20%). The EPTS score includes age, diabetes, prior organ transplant, and dialysis duration, and does not include race or ethnicity.2 Specifically, Asfour et al find that, adjusted for age, Black and Latino candidates have half the odds of being in the prioritized EPTS score≤20% group compared to White candidates, because Black and Latino candidates have higher rates of diabetes and longer dialysis durations.