HLA-DR mismatching correlates with early cardiac allograft rejection, incidence, and graft survival when high-confidence-level serological DR typing is used

To determine if cardiac allograft outcome is improved among patients with fewer HLA-DR mismatches with their donors, we studied 132 recipients of a primary cardiac allograft who were transplanted between December 1985 and December 1991. These recipients and their donors all had high-confidence-level serological HLA-DR typing, previously shown to correlate highly with DNA DR typing. Patients were divided in two groups based on the HLA-DR mismatch with their donors. Group I consisted of 78 patients with 1 or zero DR mismatch and group II of 54 patients with 2 DR mismatches. Allograft outcome measurements included incidence of moderate rejection, incidence of allograft vasculopathy at 12 months, cardiac function measured as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and cardiac index (CI), and actuarial graft survival up to 7 years. Groups I and group II were not different with regard to recipient age, donor age, ischemia time, pulmonary vascular resistance, sex, or PRA greater than 0%. Group II had a higher incidence of moderate rejection on the first-week biopsy (47% vs. 25%, P = 0.019), and during the first month (84% vs. 58%, P = 0.006), but no difference was found in frequency of rejection from months 2 to 12. LVEF was not different in the groups at any point. CI was better in group I at 12 months (2.76 vs. 2.5, P = 0.03). No statistically significant difference was found in incidence of allograft vasculopathy (17% vs. 26%, P = 0.204). Actual graft survival at 1 year was better for group I (91% vs. 74%, P = 0.008), and actuarial graft survival at 6 years also favored group I (76% vs. 56%, P = 0.04). Using high-confidence-level serological HLA-DR typing assignments we demonstrated that HLA-DR mismatching correlates highly with cardiac allograft outcome. Implications are that heart transplant survival could be improved if prospective matching were feasible and prioritized or if immunosuppression were tailored to the HLA-DR match.

Noninvasive cardiac testing in the end-stage renal disease patient

Renal transplant candidates are at increased risk for future cardiac death--approximately 5-10% per year. Invasive testing by coronary angiography has been used to assess the cardiac risk. However this is expensive and carries its own risks to residual renal function as well as cardiac morbidity and mortality. Screening of patients by clinical risk factors may obviate the need for invasive or noninvasive testing in a significant number (approximately 50%) of the renal transplant candidates. Further noninvasive testing with exercise or dipyridamole thallium-201 stress testing in the high-risk patients may be a more cost-effective screening test than coronary angiography. Other noninvasive testing modalities may also prove useful in the future but have not yet been proven in this unique patient population. The characterization of a renal transplant candidate's cardiac risk may assist the clinicians in prioritizing the candidate for transplantation. Recent evidence also suggests that revascularization of the diabetic renal transplant candidate with significant coronary artery disease (which is approachable by angioplasty or bypass surgery) may modify their cardiac risk. Randomized studies of the efficacy of revascularization or medical therapy interventions in the nondiabetic renal transplant candidate with coronary artery disease have not been performed.

The specificity of normal qualitative angiography in excluding cardiac allograft vasculopathy

It has been frequently stated that qualitative coronary angiography is insensitive in the diagnosis of cardiac allograft vasculopathy because the disease can be diffuse without observable luminal irregularities. However, the specificity of otherwise normal qualitative coronary angiography for excluding cardiac allograft vasculopathy has not been prospectively studied. Accordingly, 28 patients who underwent transplantation from June 23, 1989 to July 9, 1990 underwent coronary angiography within 3 weeks (predischarge) after transplantation and at 1 year. Twenty-one of these patients who had both normal 1-year qualitative coronary angiography and predischarge angiograms adequate for analysis served as the study cohort. Cross-section luminal diameters (average, 14.3 per angiogram) were measured at the same branch points on each pair of angiograms in the right anterior oblique view. Seventeen of the 21 patients had no change in average luminal diameters, while the remaining four patients had consistent narrowing in all vessels and in all segments. In these four patients, the mean fall in luminal diameter was 20% +/- 2%. The specificity of normal qualitative angiography in predicting absence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy is 81%. In conclusion, qualitative angiography usually predicts the absence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. However, 15% to 20% of patients will have diffuse disease not detected by a normal study.

Heart transplantation in patients with previous cardiac operations. Excellent clinical results

A significant proportion of potential transplant recipients have undergone previous cardiac procedures and may be subject to an increased risk because of technical and other factors inherent in a reoperation. Between December 1985 and June 1991, 155 orthotopic heart transplantations were carried out in 146 patients. Eighty-five transplantations (54.8%) were carried out as the initial cardiac operation (group I); 61 operations (45.2%) were performed in patients who had previous nontransplant cardiac operations (group II). Preoperative variables including hemodynamic indexes, renal function, and status on the waiting list were similar between these groups; however, group II patients tended to be older than group I patients (51.9 +/- 10.7 versus 47.7 +/- 11.6 years, respectively; p < 0.05) and were more likely to have ischemic heart disease (80.3% versus 34.1%) than were those in group I. Significantly longer cardiopulmonary bypass time (127.6 +/- 44.7 minutes versus 108.2 +/- 18.8 minutes, p < 0.01) and duration of operation (448.1 +/- 120.9 minutes versus 353.2 +/- 85.1 minutes, p < 0.01) was found in group II. Operative mortality in group I was 4.7% and in group II was 6.6% (p > 0.9). Group I actuarial survival at 1 year and 5 years was 87.1% +/- 3.6% and 72.9% +/- 6.2%, respectively. Group II actuarial survival was 85.3% +/- 4.5% and 76.0% +/- 6.6%, respectively, for the same time periods. In spite of the greater technical challenge implied by previous cardiac operations, no significant survival differences occurred between these groups (p > 0.9). However, patients undergoing a second cardiac transplantation (n = 9) were identified as a high-risk subset with operative mortality of 22.8% and 1-year survival of only 33.3% +/- 15.7% (p < 0.0003). Cardiac transplantation in patients who have undergone previous nontransplant cardiac operations can be carried out without compromising immediate or long-term outcome.

The hemodynamic effects of intraoperative injection of muromonab CD3

During anesthesia 5 mg of muromonab CD3 (OKT3), an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody, was administered prophylactically to twelve patients undergoing cadaveric renal transplantation. Preoperatively, all patients were at or near their dry body weights. Methylprednisolone 500 mg on call to or in the operating room, azathioprine 2 mg kg-1 and diphenhydramine 50 mg were administered intraoperatively to reduce the probability and severity of reported effects of OKT3. After induction of anesthesia, the patients were monitored for changes in cardiovascular variables for up to 120 min after OKT3 administration. All patients had uneventful anesthetic courses. Analysis of variance showed no significant changes from pre-OKT3 administration in heart rate, mean blood pressure, mean pulmonary artery pressure, central venous pressure (CVP), pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVRI). CVP values were a reliable indicator of PCWP with the correlation coefficient of CVP to PCWP or r = 0.78 (P < 0.00005) and PCWP = .89 x CVP + 3.78. Cardiac index (CI) increased 22% at 105 min (P < 0.05). Systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI) decreased 21% at 105 min (P < 0.05). SVRI was increased 16% at 10 min post-OKT3 (P < 0.05). All of these statistically significant values were within acceptable clinical limits. Euvolemic cadaveric renal transplant recipients receiving prophylactic steroids and diphenhydramine may receive OKT3 in the operating room for induction immunosuppression without any appreciable risk of cardiovascular compromise.

A randomized clinical trial of induction therapy with OKT3 in kidney transplantation

A randomized, prospective multicenter trial was conducted to compare the safety and efficacy of OKT3 as an induction therapy with that of conventional immunosuppressive therapy administered to cadaveric renal allograft recipients. Two hundred fifteen patients were treated either with OKT3 plus azathioprine and steroids for 14 days with the delayed addition of cyclosporine on day 11, or with conventional immunosuppression (steroids, azathioprine, and cyclosporine). OKT3 patients had significantly fewer rejection episodes (51% vs. 66%, P = 0.032), a longer time to initial rejection (46 days vs. 8 days, P = 0.001), and fewer rejection episodes per patient (0.82 vs. 1.14, P = 0.014) than conventionally treated patients. Kaplan-Meier estimates of two-year graft and patient survival rates were 84% and 95%, respectively, for the OKT3-treated group, and 75% and 94%, respectively, for the conventionally treated group. Following a subsequent first rejection episode, OKT3 reversed 93% of the rejections in patients receiving OKT3 induction therapy and 94% in patients receiving conventional therapy. Adverse experiences reported during OKT3 induction therapy were similar to those seen when the drug was used for rejection. Following initial exposure, 40.3% of the patients tested were positive for anti-OKT3 antibody, only 6.7% of which were of high titer (1:1000). In the presence of low titer (1:100 or less) antibody, OKT3 was successful in reversing rejection in five of six retreated patients tested. In conclusion, treatment with OKT3 (in combination with azathioprine, steroids, and the delayed addition of cyclosporine) is an effective approach for renal allograft maintenance.

Cytotoxic flow-cytometric crossmatches (flow-tox): a comparison with conventional cytotoxicity crossmatch techniques

Detection and avoidance of donor-reactive antibodies in the sera of potential organ transplant recipients is key to a successful transplant outcome. Techniques of antibody detection that use flow cytometry are more sensitive than those that rely upon a visual determination of cytotoxicity. However, as conventionally performed, flow-cytometric crossmatches do not distinguish between cytotoxic (complement fixing) and noncytotoxic antibodies because both types of antibodies can bind to a cell and be detected by laser-activated fluorochrome photon emission. In 1989 we described two techniques for detecting cytotoxic antibodies using flow-cytometric techniques [1]. In 1990, we expanded the application of these new techniques that we called flow cytotoxicity assays or "Flow-Tox" [2]. Flow-Tox crossmatches demonstrate an increase in both sensitivity and specificity over conventional cytotoxicity crossmatches.

A case control study of renal transplantation in patients with type I diabetes

A case control study was undertaken comparing the outcome of 208 renal allografts transplanted into diabetic recipients with those transplanted into an appropriately matched group of non-diabetic recipients. In each group there were 151 cadaver, 21 two-haplotype identical, 35 one-haplotype identical, and one zero-haplotype identical living-related grafts. For the entire group of diabetics, 1- and 5-year graft survivals were 71.3% and 46%. Graft survivals for the non-diabetic recipients at 1 and 5 yr were 81.8% and 57.8% (p less than 0.05). In all patient subgroups divided according to the donor source, the graft and patient survival rates for the non-diabetic recipients exceeded those of the diabetic recipients. One- and 5-yr diabetic patient survivals were 90% and 70%, and for the non-diabetics they were 97% and 95%, respectively (p less than 0.001). There were 40 deaths among diabetics and 15 among the non-diabetics. Cardiovascular disease was the major cause of death in the diabetics, accounting for 40% of the deaths. In addition, allograft loss due to patient death was a significant cause of graft loss in the diabetic group, 24 grafts (28%). Seven grafts (10%) were lost due to patient death in the non-diabetic group (p less than 0.05). Post-transplant, diabetic recipients had a greater incidence of stroke, angina, myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease, urinary tract infections (p less than 0.01 for each), and wound infections (p less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)