Why the study?
Does contemporary immunosuppression with mycophenolate mofetil reduce the yield of biopsy-proven acute rejection compared to azathioprine in heart transplant recipients, and what is the utility of routine surveillance endomyocardial biopsies?
Population
258 patients after orthotopic heart transplantation undergoing surveillance endomyocardial biopsies
Comparison
Immunosuppression with mycophenolate mofetil… vs Immunosuppression with azathioprine…
Design
Cohort
Follow-up
1 year
Authors
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MMF was associated with lower rejection yield than AZA; hypothesis-generating for reevaluating routine biopsy frequency in the first year post-transplant.
Does contemporary immunosuppression with mycophenolate mofetil reduce the yield of biopsy-proven acute rejection compared to azathioprine in heart transplant recipients, and what is the utility of routine surveillance endomyocardial biopsies?
The low yield of biopsy-proven acute rejection and the cumulative risk of complications suggest that the frequency of routine surveillance endomyocardial biopsies in the first year after heart transplantation should be reevaluated in the era of contemporary immunosuppression.
Hamour et al. (2008) studied this question.