The effect of prelung transplant clinical status on post-transplant survival of children with cystic fibrosis.

The aim of this study was to determine whether transplanting paediatric cystic fibrosis (CF) patients later in the course of their disease was detrimental to their post-transplant survival. Data was collected from 51 children with CF undergoing lung or heart-lung transplantation May 1988-March 1999. The following risk factors were tested by Cox proportional hazards modelling: age at transplant; sex; donor/recipient sex mismatch; donor/recipient cytomegalovirus (CMV) mismatch; cold and warm graft ischaemic times; and donor age. Pretransplant forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), minimum oxygen saturation obtained during 12 min walk (Sa,O2min), and a survival probability score (SP) calculated from FEV1, age adjusted resting heart rate, age, sex, blood haemoglobin (Hb), and serum albumin were then added to the model. None of the risk factors were significantly correlated with death during the study period. No evidence that clinical status prior to transplant has any effect upon the post-transplant survival of children with cystic fibrosis was found.