improvement in severe heart failure post-successful renal transplantation: a single-centre experience with seven cases

heart failure is common in patients with chronic renal disease, either as a complication of renal failure or from shared risk factors, or is the major cause of death in patients on dialysis. at present, end stage renal disease (esrd) patients who have systolic heart failure are considered high-risk for surgery; and nephrologists and cardiologists are reluctant to refer these patients for kidney transplant evaluation. it is unclear whether such patients should be accepted and waitlisted for transplantation. seven cases with end stage renal disease (esrd) and severe heart failure with ejection fraction (ef) of less than 20% and newyork class 3 - 4, despite being on optimal treatment, who underwent renal transplant from nonrelative living donor at shahid moddaress hospital in tehran, iran during the july 2013 to december 2015, were retrospectively collected and analysed. the mean ± sd of patient’s age was 32.7 ± 16 years, and about 72% of them were female. the left ventricle ejection fraction increased by 35% on an average after the renal transplantation. renal transplantation significantly improved the lv systolic function and ejection fraction status and subsequently decreased the need for medical treatment and heart transplantation.