Abstract

Accelerated coronary disease in the cardiac allograft (TxCAD) is a major complication affecting long-term survival of heart transplant patients. Since the transplanted heart remains denervated, the first sign of TxCAD may be silent myocardial infarction or sudden death. The prevalence of this disease has been unaltered since the advent of cyclosporine immunosuppression. Serial annual coronary arteriograms in 132 patients undergoing transplantation after 1979 at Stanford revealed 44 patients who developed TxCAD (33%). Multiple variables, including patient lipid profile, extent of donor and recipient tissue match, age of recipient and donor, number of rejection episodes, prednisone dose, and fasting blood sugar were examined in relation to occurrence of TxCAD. Donor age was greater among the 44 patients developing TxCAD that in the 88 patients who did not develop coronary artery disease (23.5 +/- 5.8 vs 21.3 +/- 5.7 years, p less than .05). The fasting plasma triglyceride level 1 year after transplantation was 236.0 +/- 246.3 mg% in the patients with TxCAD vs 170.1 +/- 108.2 mg% in those without TxCAD (p less than .05). No other indexes, including number of rejection episodes during first posttransplant year, number of HL-A mismatches, level of maintenance steroids, fasting blood sugar, and cholesterol subfractions identified patients who developed TxCAD. We conclude that TxCAD has limited correlation with the clinical and laboratory factors analyzed. Higher donor age and elevated plasma triglycerides may be significant predisposing factors for the development of TxCAD.

View details for PubMedID 3311457