Cardiac risk evaluation for abdominal transplantation.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cardiovascular disease has emerged as a leading cause of perioperative morbidity and mortality in renal and liver transplant patients. There is no consensus on how to diagnose cardiac disease in transplant patients. Further, there is significant disagreement in the literature regarding the use of routine screening methods to detect disease. This review will explore published observations on cardiac complications in renal and liver transplant patients to try and determine why investigators hold such divergent opinions. RECENT
FINDINGS: The prevalence of cardiac disease is greater in renal and liver transplant patients than in the general public. Complications of cardiac disease play a large role in early mortality and graft loss in the postoperative period. While the presence of risk factors seems to predict coronary disease in renal disease, these factors do not perform as well in liver disease. Noninvasive stress testing for coronary artery disease seems to have low sensitivity in both transplant populations. However, the measurement of cardiac troponin seems to be of some value in predicting early mortality.
SUMMARY: Physicians have not identified an effective yet cost-effective way to screen transplant patients for cardiac disease. Therefore, the first step in creating widely accepted protocols demand that physicians decide what predictive power that screening tests should have in this unique population.