Delayed occurrence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in Chinese heart transplant recipients compared with their western counterparts

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a leading limiting factor to long-term survival after cardiac transplantation. We investigated the prevalence of CAV and its associated factors in Chinese heart transplant recipients. From July 1987 to July 2000, we performed 140 consecutive heart transplantations at the National Taiwan University Hospital. Of the 140 patients, 98 who were > or = 17-yr old at the time of transplantation, had survived for more than 1 yr after transplantation, and who had normal findings at the 1-month coronary angiogram study, were included in this study. Group I consisted of 25 patients who eventually developed CAV in the follow-up, and group II consisted of 73 patients who were free from CAV in the follow-up. CAV was defined by coronary angiogram study.The donor and recipient characteristics were not statistically different between the two groups except the older donor age (p = 0.02), higher first-year mean rejection score (p = 0.03) and more prevalent cytomegalovirus infection rate (p = 0.03) in group I. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that only higher first-year mean rejection score (p = 0.01), and older donor age (p = 0.04) were important risk factors for developing CAV. The 1-5 yr of actuarial freedom from the presence of CAV were 97, 93, 86, 80 and 69% in our study patients. In summary, these data show that CAV occurred later in Chinese heart transplant recipients in comparison with their western counterparts, but the risk factors for developing CAV were not different.