Prevalence of Iron Deficiency in Heart Transplant Recipients

Abstract

Purpose Many heart transplant recipients have reduced exercise capacity and health-related quality of life, despite good over-all results regarding graft function. We believe iron deficiency (ID) to be one of several peripheral factors to have an impact on exercise capacity in heart transplant recipients, unrelated to hemodynamic dysfunction. In the general population, ID is defined as serum ferritin Methods We assessed parameters of iron metabolism in 169 stable heart transplant recipients at their annual follow up, at least one year after transplantation. ID was defined as s-ferritin Results Study demographics are presented in the Table. 81 patients (48 %) had ID defined as serum ferritin 4.0 µg/l, and 29 patients (17 %) had an sedimentation rate (SR) > 20 mm. Ferritin was weakly associated with SR (r = 0.24; p = 0.002) as well as estimated GFR (r = -0.22; p = 0.004) and age (r = 0.17; p = 0.02). Conclusion ID is prevalent in heart transplant recipients. Trials should be initiated to evaluate whether intravenous iron substitution can improve functional capacity and quality of life in heart transplant recipients with ID.