Commentary: Fear of rejection: Acute cellular rejection after ventricular assist device placement

Acute cellular rejection.

The incidence of acute rejection of the kidney allograft in the world has been around 15% during the period between 2001 and 2003. It is clinically defined as an elevation in the level of serum creatinine by more than 0.3 mg/dL and is diagnosed by kidney biopsy. On pathologic examination, the interstitium of the allograft is diffusely edematous and infiltrated by CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes. Tubuli...

Aortic regurgitation after left ventricular assist device placement.

A 1 60-YEAR-OLD man with a history of recent heart failure caused by both primitive and ischemic dilated cardiomypathy underwent the successful implantation of a left ventriclar assist device (Novacor LVAS; WorldHeart, Ottawa, ON, anada) under cardiopulmonary bypass. Intraoperative transsophageal echocardiography (TEE) performed immediately fter implantation showed the correct placement of both...

Regression of cellular hypertrophy after left ventricular assist device support.

BACKGROUND Although multiple studies have shown that the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) improves distorted cardiac geometry, the pathological mechanisms of the "reverse remodeling" of the heart are unknown. Our goal was to determine the effects of LVAD support on cardiac myocyte size and shape. METHODS AND RESULTS Isolated myocytes were obtained at cardiac transplantation from 30 faili...

Ventricular arrhythmias after left ventricular assist device.

Cellular Rejection*

Delayed or cellular hypersensitivity is the primary immunologic mechanism in the rejection of organ homografts. Mounting evidence implicates the small lymphocyte as the cell responsible for implementing this reaction. The immunologic role of the lymphocyte in the graft-versus-host reaction was first recognized by Simonsen (1957). He showed that if newborn or heavily irradiated mice are injected...