Author Interviews, Cleveland Clinic, Heart Disease, JACC, Kidney Disease, Transplantation / 13.10.2015
ESRD Patients May Experience Cardiac Improvement After Transplant
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
W.H. Wilson Tang, MD, FACC
Assistant Professor in Medicine,
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Staff, Section of Heart Failure & Cardiac Transplant Medicine
Assistant Program Director, General Clinical Research Center
The Cleveland Clinic Cleveland, OH
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Tang: Cardiac function is a key determinant of outcomes after surgery, especially transplantation. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) poses a unique scenario, as the metabolic and uremic derangements that result from this condition lead to adverse cardiac remodeling, and kidney transplantation offers a potential for reverse remodeling. We studied patients who underwent kidney transplantation and found that echocardiogram following transplantation demonstrated consistent and significant improvement in cardiac structure and function. Post-transplant improvement in anemia was a vital factor that independently predicted such positive changes, whereas post-transplant changes in blood pressure, renal function at 12 months, and dialysis duration duration did not. Moreover, patients that demonstrated reverse remodeling had outcomes comparable to those with normal baseline cardiac function.
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