Heart transplantation in diabetic recipients

Introduction. Heart transplantation (HT) in patients with preexisting type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with high risk of infectious and non-infectious complications (renal dysfunction, multifocal atherosclerosis,  transplant coronary artery disease, etc.) that can negatively affect recipient survival in the early and late periods after HT.

Objective: to assess the effect of pre-transplant T2D on early and long-term outcomes of HT based on a  singlecenter retrospective study.

Materials and methods. The study enrolled 891 recipients who underwent HT within the period 2011 to 2018, and were divided into two groups: main group (T2D) – recipients with pretransplant T2D (n = 80, 9.0%) and the control group (T2D-free) – recipients without T2D (n = 811, 91.0%). Recipients from both groups did not differ in terms of HT urgency (UNOS status) and the need for pre-transplant mechanical circulatory support (MCS).

Results. At the time of the HT, recipients from the T2D group were older than the T2D-free recipients (54 [46; 59] years vs 48 [35; 56] years, p < 0.001), they had a higher weight (p < 0.001) and body mass index (p < 0.001), coronary heart disease was more often their main disease (65.0% vs 36.5%, p < 0.001), they had higher transpulmonary gradient (10.0 [7.0; 12.0] mm Hg vs 9.0 [6.0; 12.0] mm Hg, p = 0.024) and  pulmonary vascular resistance (2.9 [2.2; 4.0] Wood units vs 2.5 [1.8; 3.4] Wood units, p = 0.038). In the pre-transplant period, the T2D group had pronounced manifestations of renal dysfunction and increased comorbidity. Recipients in both groups did not differ in terms of cardiac donor parameters, graft ischemia time, cardiopulmonary bypass time, and incidence of severe early heart graft dysfunction requiring MCS (12.5% vs 10.7%, p = 0.74). In the early post-transplant period, the T2D group had high requirements (100% vs 28.0%, p < 0.001) and higher doses of insulin therapy. More pronounced manifestations of renal dysfunction and a greater need for renal replacement therapy (51.4% vs 27.9%, p = 0.003) did not affect artificial ventilation and ICU duration (6 [5; 10] days vs 6 [5; 10] days, p = 0.098), as well as hospital mortality ( 8.8% vs 8.5%, p = 0.895). The presence of pre-transplant T2D had no negative effect on the incidence of acute cardiac graft rejection, progression of transmissible coronary atherosclerosis, incidence and severity of cardiac graft vasculopathy, structure and severity of distant infectious and non-infectious complications, and post-transplant survival.

Conclusion. With correct selection of recipients and choice of optimal tactics for their post-transplant management, the presence of pre-transplant T2D has no negative effect on early and long-term outcomes of HT.

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