Immunosuppression for cardiac transplantation—the past, present and future

Abstract

The field of cardiac transplant immunosuppression is rapidly developing and has evolved over the past 35 years. Anecdote, experience and registry based practice is giving way to an increasing bounty of well designed, randomized controlled trials which will guide future therapy. Current therapy is based on triple therapy with corticosteroids, a calcineurin inhibitor and an antimetabolite, but these regimens may be replaced by substitution or addition of newer antiproliferative agents. The true nemesis is coronary graft vasculopathy, which affects 50% of patients at 5 years and until recently had very few preventive therapeutic options. Renal toxicity remains among the most challenging adverse effects of immunosuppression to be overcome.