New UCLA study reports which patients fare worse after heart transplantation

Emax Health | Robin Wulffson MD

According to UCLA cardiologists, heart transplant patients are very prone to developing an aggressive form of coronary artery disease, which often results in heart failure, death, or the need for repeat transplantation.

Furthermore, the condition may have a negative impact on future cardiac procedures, such as stenting. UCLA researchers have determined which heart transplant patients are prone to have poor long-term survival. Their study, one of the largest and longest follow-up studies of this patient population, was published in the June 15 edition of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The researchers note that transplant patients are among those at highest risk of adverse outcomes when receiving a stent to address a blockage in an artery. Compared with the general public, these patients have a much higher rate of restenosis, a side effect of stenting in which the artery becomes re-blocked because of an exaggerated scarring process at the stenting site. New research by UCLA researchers and colleagues has found that heart transplant patients who develop restenosis after receiving a stent have poor long-term survival.

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