Gingival overgrowth in paediatric cardiac transplant patients: a study of 19 patients aged between 2 and 16 years.

It is well established that both cyclosporin and nifedipine are associated with gingival overgrowth. However, there is little information on the prevalence of this undesirable effect in paediatric patients. The present study investigated gingival overgrowth in 19 cardiac transplant patients aged 2 years 8 months to 16 years 3 months (1.5-8.5 years post-transplant) and related such changes to variables of daily cyclosporin dosage, trough blood cyclosporin concentration and daily nifedipine dosage. Ten patients showed clinically significant gingival overgrowth and nine relatively minor overgrowth; there was no significant difference between the two groups with respect to age, length of time post-transplant, cyclosporin dosage, whole blood concentration of cyclosporin or intake of nifedipine. The expression of gingival changes therefore did not relate to any drug variable in this group of subjects.