• Aparna C Swaminathan, Alec McConnell, Sarah Peskoe, Mustafa R Bashir, BuckleyErika BushEBDepartment of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC., Courtney W Frankel, Daniel J Turner, Patrick J Smith, Lorenzo Zaffiri, Lianne G Singer, and Laurie D Snyder.
• Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC; Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC. Electronic address: aparna.swaminathan@duke.edu.
• Chest. 2023 Jul 1; 164 (1): 159168159-168.

BackgroundFrailty, measured as a single construct, is associated variably with poor outcomes before and after lung transplantation. The usefulness of a comprehensive frailty assessment before transplantation is unknown.Research QuestionHow are multiple frailty constructs, including phenotypic and cumulative deficit models, muscle mass, exercise tolerance, and social vulnerabilities, measured before transplantation, associated with short-term outcomes after lung transplantation?Study Design And MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of 515 lung recipients who underwent frailty assessments before transplantation, including the short physical performance battery (SPPB), transplant-specific frailty index (FI), 6-min walk distance (6MWD), thoracic sarcopenia, and social vulnerability indexes. We tested the association between frailty measures before transplantation and outcomes after transplantation using logistic regression to model 1-year survival and zero-inflated negative binomial regression to model hospital-free days (HFDs) in the first 90 days after transplantation. Adjustment covariates included age, sex, native lung disease, transplantation type, lung allocation score, BMI, and primary graft dysfunction.ResultsBefore transplantation, 51.3% of patients were frail by FI (FI ≥ 0.25) and no patients were frail by SPPB. In multivariate adjusted models that also included FI, SPPB, and 6MWD, greater frailty by FI, but not SPPB, was associated with fewer HFDs (-0.006 per 0.01 unit worsening; 95% CI, -0.01 to -0.002 per 0.01 unit worsening) among discharged patients. Greater SPPB deficits were associated with decreased odds of 1-year survival (OR, 0.51 per 1 unit worsening; 95% CI, 0.28-0.93 per 1 unit worsening). Correlation among frailty measurements overall was poor. No association was found between thoracic sarcopenia, 6MWD, or social vulnerability assessments and short-term outcomes after lung transplantation.InterpretationBoth phenotypic and cumulative deficit models measured before transplantation are associated with short-term outcomes after lung transplantation. Cumulative deficit measures of frailty may be more relevant in the first 90 days after transplantation, whereas phenotypic frailty may have a stronger association with 1-year survival.Published by Elsevier Inc.

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