Eva Lacková, Juraj Šváč, Libor Kolesár, Antonij Slavčev, Marcel Čellár, Alena Mazúchová
Slovakia is a multi-ethnic country with 5.4 million inhabitants. Non-Roma ethnic groups represent 13.4 % and the Roma
7.4 % of the total population. The aim of our research is to compare the kidney transplant results within the non-Roma
and the Roma populations as regards the survival of the patients and the grafts, and eventually to identify factors that
may have an impact on these results. The Transplantation Centre of the F.D. Roosevelt hospital in Banska Bystrica (Slovakia)
analysed 707 patients undergone kidney transplant between January 1991 and December 2013. 35 were Roma
and 672 Caucasian. While the mortality rate between the groups appears comparably close, the Roma died younger by
an average of 8.7 years. Grafts survival remain statistically not different within the two groups. We have also analysed
the KIR genes of 29 Roma and compared the results with Caucasian volunteers from the Czech Republic; we haven’t
identified any statistically significant difference. The purpose of this study was by no means to highlight any discrimination;
on the contrary, our effort is to improve transplantation results for the Roma ethnic group.