People with diabetes can benefit from heart transplant

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Diabetes need not preclude someone having a heart transplant, according to a ten year study.
Previous research has suggested that diabetes is a contraindication for heart transplant. But now a team at Columbia University shows that this need not be so. Data from the United Network for Organ Sharing show that during a ten year period, heart transplant recipients with uncomplicated diabetes live as long as those without diabetes. But those with diabetes-related organ damage, such as stroke or kidney disease, had worse long-term survival.

Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease and heart failure, which is why some people with diabetes may need a heart transplant. This study shows the average survival time with either uncomplicated diabetes or without diabetes is about ten years. With one complication, survival was down to about six years and with more than one, about three years. The findings suggest that if pre-transplant screening shows diabetes with complications, then alternative treatment should perhaps be considered rather than a heart transplant.

Source
Circulation November 2006

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