Liver Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Coronary event rates in liver transplant recipients reflect the increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk-factors.

Guckelberger O, Byram A, Klupp J, Neumann UP, Glanemann M, Stockmann M, Neuhaus R, Neuhaus P

Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, Charité- Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Berlin, Germany. olaf.guckelberger@charite.de

Increased prevalence of cardiovascular risk-factors in liver transplant recipients compared with pretransplant and standard population data has been acknowledged. The impact of risk-profiles on cardiovascular event rates or death, however, has not yet been established. Here we evaluate the development of risk-factors during a prospective follow-up of 10 years in 302 patients and compare numbers of coronary events with data from the German Prospective Cardiovascular Münster (PROCAM)-Score population. Prevalence of overweight (17% vs. 27%), hypertension (70% vs. 80%), and diabetes (21% vs. 25%) increased from early to late after transplantation, while elevated serum cholesterol (64% vs. 37%) and triglycerides (40% vs. 21%) became less frequent. Cardiovascular risk-profiles favoring tacrolimus over ciclosporin A based immunosuppression early after transplantation converged over time. Increased risk-scores in liver transplant recipients matched with score standardized event rates in the PROCAM population (ratio: 1.11, 95% CI: 0.53-2.03), nine events were predicted for the transplant population and oppose 10 events observed. Thus, indicating a reflection of increased cardiovascular risk-profiles in corresponding numbers of cardiovascular events.

Published 12 July 2005 in Transpl Int, 18(8): 967-74.
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