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Arrhythmias in the Heart Transplant Patient
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Arrhythmias in the Heart Transplant Patient

David Hamon, Jane Taleski, Marmar Vaseghi, Kalyanam Shivkumar and Noel G Boyle
Arrhythmia & electrophysiology review, Vol.3(3), pp.149-155
11/01/2014
DOI: 10.15420/aer.2014.3.3.149
PMCID: PMC4711495
PMID: 26835083
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4711495View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) is currently the most effective long-term therapy for patients with end-stage cardiac disease, even as left ventricular devices show markedly improved outcomes. As surgical techniques and immunosuppressive regimens have been refined, short-term mortality caused by sepsis has decreased, while morbidity caused by repeated rejection episodes and vasculopathy has increased, and is often manifested by arrhythmias. These chronic transplant complications require early and aggressive multidisciplinary treatment. Understanding the relationship between arrhythmias and these complications in the acute and chronic stages following OHT is critical in improving patient prognosis, as arrhythmias may be the earliest or sole presentation. Finally, decentralised/ denervated hearts represent a unique opportunity to investigate the underlying mechanisms of arrhythmias.
Clinical Arrhythmias

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