THE CORONARY-ARTERIES OF THE TRANSPLANTED HUMAN HEART - STUDIES OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISEASE BASED ON SERIAL ANGIOGRAPHY

291 coronary angiograms were performed routinely 1 to 8 years after cardiac transplantation in 116 patients operated on at Papworth Hospital between January 1979 and September 1986. In this setting, as in others, angiography tends to underestimate the amount of disease present, and the patterns of angiographic abnormality are various. The actuarial probability of freedom from angiographic evidence of coronary occlusion is 79% at 2 years, 76% at 3 years, 60% at 4 years, 57% at 5 years. We have defined two disparate groups designated 'fast disease' and 'slow disease', being respectively those who have angiographic and/or pathologic evidence of disease at two years, and those who have normal coronary angiograms at 5 years. In comparing features of these two groups, donor age, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride level differ, though significantly only for the high density fraction.