Risk Factors and Cardiovascular Events in Orthotopic Liver Transplantation.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Patients undergoing liver transplantation often have significant cardiovascular risk factors and may experience cardiac-related morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes in this population, and to identify factors predictive of post-transplant cardiac morbidity and mortality. METHODS: We studied 261 patients who underwent liver transplantation at a single Veterans' Affairs Medical center between 1997 and 2015 to evaluate new cardiovascular events post-transplantation. RESULTS: The cohort consisted of 261 patients (253 men and 8 women) with a mean age of 58.3 (± 6.5 years), mean model for end-stage liver disease score of 18.0 (±7.2), and mean Framingham risk score of 8.1 (± 4.9). After a median follow-up of 82 months a total of 75 (28.7%) patients died, with 13 deaths (17.3%) attributed to a primary cardiovascular event and 9 (12%) deaths due to a coronary-specific event. Coronary events and/ or the need for revascularization post-transplant occurred in 24 (9.2%) patients. The strongest pre-transplant predictors of mortality were age (p=0.01), Framingham risk score (p=0.01), preexisting coronary artery disease (p=0.01), and preexisting dyslipidemia (p=0.01). The strongest post-transplant predictors of mortality were new-onset hypertension (p=0.01) and new-onset diabetes mellitus (p=0.03) post-transplant. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of veterans, coronary artery disease was significantly associated with mortality in the post liver transplantation population; however, the majority of deaths after transplant were attributable to other causes.

Surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis improves outcome.

OBJECTIVE: Liver transplantation has become an effective treatment for cirrhotic patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma. We hypothesized that the quality of surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma influences prognosis by affecting access to liver transplantation. METHODS: A total of 269 patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma were retrospectively categorized into 3 groups according to quality of surveillance: standard-of-care (n=172) (group 1); substandard surveillance (n=48) (group 2); and absence of surveillance in patients not recognized to be cirrhotic (n=59) (group 3). RESULTS: Three-year survival in the 60 patients who underwent liver transplantation was 81% versus 12% for patients who did not undergo transplantation (P<.001). The percentages of patients who underwent transplantation according to tumor stage at diagnosis (T1, T2, T3, and T4) were 58%, 35%, 10%, and 1%, respectively. Hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 in 70% of patients in group 1, 37% of patients in group 2, and only 18% of patients in group 3 (P <.001). Liver transplantation was performed in 32% of patients in group 1, 13% of patients in group 2, and 7% of patients in group 3 (P<.001). Three-year survival from cancer diagnosis in patients in group 3 (12%) was significantly worse than in patients in group 1 (39%) or group 2 (27%) (each P<.05). Eighty percent of patients in group 3 had subtle abnormalities of cirrhosis on routine laboratory tests. CONCLUSION: The quality of surveillance has a direct impact on hepatocellular carcinoma stage at diagnosis, access to liver transplantation, and survival.