The Journal of heart and lung transplantation : the official publication of the International Society for Heart Transplantation
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Jul 2005
Blood transfusions decrease the incidence of acute rejection in cardiac allograft recipients.
Cardiac transplant recipients frequently receive a large number of transfusions. The objective of this study was to determine whether there is an association between total number of blood transfusions and cardiac allograft rejection. ⋯ The number of blood transfusions received by heart transplant recipients is inversely related with the number of acute rejection episodes.
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Jul 2005
Integrity of airway epithelium is essential against obliterative airway disease in transplanted rat tracheas.
The pathogenesis of obliterative bronchiolitis after lung transplantation requires further elucidation. In this study we used rat trachea transplantation to examine the role of epithelium in the progression of obliterative airway disease. ⋯ We conclude that integrity of airway epithelium is essential for rat trachea transplants to be safeguarded from obliterative airway disease. For clinical lung transplantation the results of our study suggest that protection of the integrity of airway epithelium may be important in preventing the development of obliterative bronchiolitis.
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Jul 2005
Equivalence of flow velocities through bilateral pulmonary vein anastomoses in bilateral living-donor lobar lung transplantation.
Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during lung transplantation is useful for monitoring cardiac condition and pulmonary vascular anastomoses to detect vascular complications, but the parameters for evaluation by TEE during lung transplantation have not been established. ⋯ The flow velocities through the bilateral PV anastomoses are shown to be nearly equivalent during bilateral LDLLT, and the equivalence may be one factor for predicting the success of LDLLT.
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Jun 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialNitric oxide versus prostaglandin E1 for reduction of pulmonary hypertension in heart transplant candidates.
We sought to directly compare the effects of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and nitric oxide (NO) in testing for pulmonary hypertension reversibility in heart transplant candidates. ⋯ The effects of PGE1 and NO on pulmonary hypertension are comparable, with PGE1 having more systemic hypotensive effects. Due to variability of patient responses, we recommend multiple rather than single-agent pharmacologic testing for the reversibility of pulmonary hypertension.
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Jun 2005
Reliability for grading acute rejection and airway inflammation after lung transplantation.
The Lung Rejection Study Group (LRSG) created a scheme for grading acute allograft rejection in 1990 and then revised it in 1996, but virtually no studies have evaluated the reliability of this formulation. This investigation assessed the reliability of the current LRSG system by determining inter- and intrareader agreement for grading transbronchial biopsy samples from lung transplant recipients. ⋯ On the basis of the analysis of the LRSG scheme, "A" grades exhibit very good reliability, but "B" grades have only fair reliability, and steps to improve this shortcoming should be taken.