Heart transplantation in dilated heart muscle disease and myocarditis.

Abstract

A detailed analysis of outcome with reference to pre-transplant diagnosis was performed in 14 055 cardiac transplant recipients to determine whether the diagnosis of dilated heart muscle disease predicted survival. Overall survival at one year was greater than 80% in all patients. In general, those with dilated heart muscle disease had a small but significantly improved survival compared to those with other diagnoses. Outcome in women, which is significantly poorer than men, showed similar diagnosis-specific results. Multivariate analysis confirmed the significant difference (P = 0.02) with a minimal reduction in risk (relative risk 0.927). In conclusion, carefully selected patients with dilated heart muscle disease are excellent candidates for cardiac transplantation.