Ultrasound saves lives of renal transplant patients
Stress echocardiography can accurately predict the onset of cardiovascular disease in patients waiting for kidney transplants.
Stress echocardiography can accurately predict the onset of cardiovascular disease in patients waiting for kidney transplants.
Principal investigator Dr. Cristina Tita, a cardiologist at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed data from 149 consecutive patients, split nearly evenly between women and men; 65% of patients were African American. Patients underwent stress echocardiography before and after transplantation and were followed for nearly three years.
The investigators found that patients with abnormal pre- and post-transplant stress echocardiograms had a 30% chance of having a major cardiac event in the first year after surgery compared with a 3% chance for those with a negative scan. They reported their findings in June at the American Society of Echocardiography meeting.
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