Imparied left ventricular systolic function early after heart transplantation is associated with cardiac allograft vasculopathy

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a major cause of death more than 1 year after heart transplantation. We evaluated the role and possible predictive value of different etiological factors on development of CAV as diagnosed by quantitative coronary angiography (OCA). A total of 121 patients were studied with baseline QCA and 117 had a follow-up study at 1 year to assess the relationship of mean lumen diameter loss (MLDL) in main coronary arteries to immunological and non-immunological factors potentially affecting long-term survival. Out of them, 103 patients were males (85%), 114 (94%) patients were Caucasians and mean age was 48.5 10 years. Univariate analysis showed that MLDL at 1 year was inversely related to echocardiographic fractional shortening (FS) measured within the first week after transplantation (p = 0.0098) and to intracranial hemorrhage as cause of donor death (p = 0.04) and was directly related to male donors (p = 0.0008), domino transplants (p = 0.037) and donor negative cytomegalovirus (CMV) status (p = 0.022). Multivariate analysis showed that initial FS (p = 0.006) and donor intracranial hemorrhage as a cause of death (p = 0.042) were inversely related to MLDL whereas donor male sex (p = 0.003) and prednisolone treatment throughout the first year (p = 0.012) were directly related. Thus, left ventricular systolic dysfunction early after heart transplantation was associated with subsequent development of CAV

The European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Consensus Guidelines for the Detection and Treatment of Donor-specific Anti-HLA Antibodies (DSA) in Haploidentical Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

Haploidentical donors are now increasingly considered for transplantation in the absence of HLA-matched donors or when an urgent transplant is needed. Donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSA) have been recently recognized as an important barrier against successful engraftment of donor cells, which can affect transplant survival. DSA appear more prevalent in this type of transplant due to higher likelihood of alloimmunization of multiparous females against offspring's HLA antigens, and the degree of mismatch. Here we summarize the evidence for the role of DSA in the development of primary graft failure in haploidentical transplantation and provide consensus recommendations from the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant Group on testing, monitoring, and treatment of patients with DSA receiving haploidentical hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation