Survival After Cardiac Transplantation: Influence of the Previous Cardiopathy in the Recipient

Abstract

Introduction Data from cardiac transplantation registries have demonstrated a gradual improvement in patient survival over the last decades. Nevertheless, 5-years mortality rates may reflect the multitude of physiologic processes. Registries offer valuable information regarding predictors of mortality that may help us to improve therapeutic strategies. Objectives To determine the influence on long term recipient survival of the type of prior cardiopathy that led to cardiac transplantation. Methods Analysis of a 316 patient cohort who underwent heart transplantation since 1991 at a single center. Results We analyzed the main clinical variables among a cohort with a mean follow-up of 7.2 years (standard deviation [SD], 4.8). There were 84.2% men and the overall mean age of 50.06 years (SD 12.29) at the time of transplantation. We identified 11 cardiopathies as the leading causes for transplantation: severe ischemic cardiopathy (55.3%), dilated cardiomyopathy (29.1%), terminal valvular cardiopathy (5.4%), alcoholic cardiopathy (2.5%), congenital cardiopathy (1.6%), acute myocarditis (1.6%), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (1.6%), endomyocardial fibrosis (1.3%), anthracyclin-related dilated cardiopathy (0.9%), peripartum cardiomyopathy (0.3%), and vascular allograft disease (0.3%). The mean global survival of the cohort was 4.1 years, which showed a significant increase in the recent 8 compared with the first 11 years ( P = .03). Multivariate analysis only demonstrated worse survival rate among those with chronic ischemic compared with the other cardiopathies (HR 2.17; 1.21–6.2; P = .003). Nevertheless, the signification disappeared after adjusting the analysis for the presence of ≥2 classical cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusion Patients with chronic ischemic cardiopathy showed the leading cause for a lower survival after cardiac transplantation compared with other cardiopathies, which seemed to be related to the cardiovascular risk factors that produced the cardiopathy.