Author/Authors :
Li, Jian Department of Cardiology - South Campus, Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Zhuang, Qi Department of Cardiology - South Campus, Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Zhang, Xueming Department of Cardiology - Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Zheng, Ying Department of Cardiology - Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Qiao, Zhiqing Department of Cardiology - Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Zhang, Jianjun Department of Liver Surgery and Liver Transplantation Center -Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Shen, Xuedong Department of Cardiology - Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China , Shen, Jieyan Department of Cardiology - Renji Hospital - School of Medicine - Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Abstract :
Objective. To investigate the prevalence and prognosis of portopulmonary hypertension (PoPH) in liver transplant recipients.
Methods. Patients with advanced liver disease who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) were included in this
retrospective study from January 2012 to June 2015. According to the 2015 European Society of Cardiology (ESC)/European
Respiratory Society (ERS) guidelines for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (PH), patients with tricuspid regurgitation
velocity (TRV) >3.4 m/s or 2.9 m/s ≤ TRV ≤ 3.4 m/s coexisting with other echocardiographic PH signs were judged as PH. PH
patients with portal hypertension and without other known causes of PH were diagnosed as PoPH. Results. A total of 223 (170
males and 53 females) middle-aged (50.9 ± 9 years old) liver transplant recipients were included in this study. Fourteen patients
(6.3%) were diagnosed with PoPH, and none of the patients were treated with vasodilators before or after OLT. After OLT,
patients were followed up for 26 ± 13.5 months. In total, 8 of 14 (57%) PoPH patients died, and the main cause of death was
pulmonary infection. Kaplan–Meier survival curves revealed a significant difference in survival between PoPH and non-PoPH
patients (p < 0.001), and the median survival time after OLT of PoPH was 11.4 months. Conclusions. *e prevalence of PoPH was
6.3% in OLT recipients. *e survival of untreated PoPH patients was dismal after OLT.
