Characteristics and Outcomes of Heart Transplant Recipients With Coronavirus-19 Disease in a High-volume Transplant Center.
Transplantation
; 106(3): 641-647, 2022 03 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1703842
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Heart transplant (HT) recipients may be at higher risk of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection and developing critical illness. The aim of this study is to describe characteristics and outcomes of HT recipients infected by SARS-COV-2, from a high-volume transplant center.METHODS:
We have described data of all adult HT recipients with confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 by RT-PCR in nasopharyngeal samples from April 5, 2020, to January 5, 2021. Outcomes and follow-up were recorded until February 5, 2021.RESULTS:
Forty patients were included. Twenty-four patients (60%) were men; the median age was 53 (40-60) y old; median HT time was 34 mo; and median follow-up time 162 d. The majority needed hospitalization (83%). Immunosuppressive therapy was reduced/withdrawn in the majority of patients, except from steroids, which were maintained. Seventeen patients (42.5%) were classified as having severe disease according to the ordinal scale developed by the World Health Organization Committee. They tended to have lower absolute lymphocyte count (P < 0.001) during follow-up when compared with patients with mild disease. Thirty-day mortality was 12.5%. However, a longer follow-up revealed increased later mortality (27.5%), with median time to death around 35 d. Bacterial nosocomial infections were a leading cause of death. Cardiac allograft rejection (10%) and ventricular dysfunction (12.5%) were also not negligible.CONCLUSIONS:
Major findings of this study corroborate other cohorts' results, but it also reports significant rate of later events, suggesting that a strict midterm surveillance is advisable to HT recipients with coronavirus disease 2019.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Heart Transplantation
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Transplantation
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
TP.0000000000003770
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS