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

Transplantation for myocarditis: a controversy revisited.

Moloney ED, Egan JJ, Kelly P, Wood AE, Cooper LT

Department of Respiratory Medicine, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.

Myocarditis is a major cause of end-stage heart failure and is responsible for up to 10% of cases of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC). Worldwide, approximately 45% of all heart transplants are performed for IDC and up to 8% for myocarditis. Early reports suggested that survival after transplantation for myocarditis was poor and patients had an increased risk of rejection. More recently, larger case series suggest that overall survival after transplantation for myocarditis is similar to survival after transplantation for other causes. However, certain disorders, including cardiac sarcoidosis and giant cell myocarditis (GCM), require heightened surveillance for post-transplantation disease recurrence. We present the case of a 42-year-old man with recurrence of GCM 8 years after transplantation and review the literature on the role of cardiac transplantation for patients with myocarditis.

Published 16 August 2005 in J Heart Lung Transplant, 24(8): 1103-10.
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