Plasma lecithin/cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity in multiple-organ donors: a predictor of allograft viability in clinical liver transplantation.

Thirty-nine brain-dead donors were studied during a 5-month period between April and August 1988. The age of the donors ranged from 12 to 42 years (mean 24.1 years); 26 were male (66.7%). The causes of brain death among the donors consisted of closed head irijury in 21 (53.8%), gun-shot in 9 (23.1%), subarachnoid hemorrhage in 5 (12.8%), and others in 4 donors (10.3%). The allografts were stored cold (4°C) in University of Wisconsin solution. Early post-transplant allograft function in the recipients was classified into three groups: good, fair, and poor function, according to the highest SOOT, SOPT and prothrombin time (PT) within 5 days following liver transplantation (good: SOOT ~ 1500 U/L, SOPT ~ 1000 UIL, PT ~ 20.0 seconds; fair: SOOT ~ 3500, SOPT ~ 2500, PT ~ 20.0 seconds; poor: SOOT> 3500, SOPT > 2500, PT > 20.0 seconds). Orafts were put into the lowest (poorest) category into which any of the assessment value fell. Blood samples from the donors were drawn immediately prior to the aortic crossclamp. Plasma LCAT activity was determined using a LCA T test kit-S (Nippon Shoji Co., Osaka Japan) at 37°C with a modification of the method described by Nagasaki and Akanuma. I A unit of LCAT activity was expressed as an ability to esterify the free cholesterol at 37°C (p.g/mLIh) in the assay mixture. LCAT activities of the plasma from 5 healthy male volunteers were 31.0 ± 5.7 U.