Progression of steroid-associated osteoporosis after heart transplantation.

Background: Osteoporosis has been recognized as an important side effect of long-term and of pulsed steroid application after heart transplantation.

Methods: In June 1989 a prospective clinical trial was started to study bone demineralization by quantitative computed tomographic scan. All patients received vitamin D and calcium.

Hepatitis B vaccination of immunosuppressed heart transplant recipients with the vaccine Hepa Gene 3 containing pre-S1, pre-S2, and S gene products.

The antibody response of immunosuppressed heart transplant recipients to vaccination with the hepatitis B (HB) virus vaccine Hepa Gene 3 (HG-3), containing HB virus pre-S1, pre-S2, and S gene products, was examined. Three heart transplant recipients who had been vaccinated preoperatively against HB responded well to the vaccination. Five of 38 patients (13.

Nosocomial hepatitis B virus infections in cardiac transplant recipients transmitted during transvenous endomyocardial biopsy.

Between March 1986 and September 1990, 67 of 243 cardiac transplant recipients in outpatient care at our clinic became hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) positive after operation. The HBsAg of 63 patients belonged to the subtype ay, suggesting a common source of infection. These 63 cases and 103 controls with negative hepatitis B virus (HBV) serology were studied in order to analyse the outbreak.

University of Wisconsin versus St. Thomas' Hospital solution for human donor heart preservation.

Prolongation of the safe period of ischemia of the heart is an efficient way to overcome donor organ shortage, as demonstrated in renal and hepatic transplantation. We present the results of a prospective, randomized study comparing preservation with University of Wisconsin solution (UWS) versus St. Thomas' Hospital solution (STS) in clinical heart transplantation.