PATHOLOGIC FINDINGS IN LONG-TERM CARDIAC TRANSPLANTS

  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 108  (2) , 112-116
Abstract
Since the introduction of cardiac transplantation 15 yr ago, major advances have occurred in the monitoring and treatment of these patients, resulting in many long-term survivors. The pathologic features were defined in 14 cardiac transplants with survival times > 1 yr. Only 1 heart showed no evidence of rejection, while the remaining 13 hearts showed advanced chronic rejection, which was the main cause of death or of graft failure in 11 patients. One patient died of gastric carcinoma, 1 of Kaposi''s sarcoma and 1 of cerebral embolus. The most obtrusive change in the donor hearts was an obliterative arteritis, which in the epicardial coronary arteries mimicked atherosclerosis. Superadded thrombosis often resulted in myocardial infarction. These severe vascular lesions bore no constant relationship to survival time and took from 1.1-12.5 yr to evolve.