| News From Transplant Week of December 16, 2001 / Vol. 2 No. 50 |
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Study: Only Sickest Cystic Fibrosis Patients Benefit From Lung Transplants |
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A new study led by University of Utah researchers has found that only the sickest cystic fibrosis patients live longer after receiving lung transplants. The researchers, in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are proposing that new criteria be adopted for prioritizing cystic fibrosis patients for lung transplants, giving higher priority to the sickest CF patients. The researchers said their study showed that only cystic fibrosis patients with less than a 30 percent expected five-year survival rate benefitted from a lung transplant. The researchers examined
468 CF patients who underwent lung transplants from 1992 through
1997. Only the 95 patients with the lowest five-year survival
rate had a higher five-year survival rate after transplants, the
researchers said. Dr. Theodore Liou, the principal investigator, said fewer than 2 percent of all cystic fibrosis patients fall into this category. Patients with greater than a 50 percent expected five-year survival rate who received a lung transplant actually fared worse that comparable CF patients in the control group who did not get a lung transplant. The most common criterion used to determine eligibility for the lung transplant waiting list is a measurement called forced expiratory volume 1 (FEV 1), the volume of air a patient can blow out in one second after inhaling a full breath. The researchers
proposed using eight additional criteria that include sex, age,
weight, pancreatic function, presence of infections and diabetes
mellitus to prioritize patients for lung transplants. Other sources: UNOS, Cleveland Plain Dealer |
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