Risk factors profile and cardiovascular events in solid organ transplant recipients.

By advances in surgical techniques, success in prevention and treatment of transplant-related infections, and introduction of new immunosuppressive drugs, the patient and graft survival rates in solid organ transplant recipients has steadily and remarkably improved. It has been shown that the longer the transplant patients survival rate, the more saturation with cardiovascular risk factors and the greater risk of cardiovascular mortality. Currently, cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death after kidney transplantation and is among the three most common causes of death after heart and liver transplantation. Over the past decades, because of risk factor reduction, mortality from coronary artery disease has substantially decreased in the general population. Recent studies suggest that risk factors reduction also significantly decreases cardiovascular events and deaths in solid organ transplant recipients.