New drug helps fights heart transplant rejection

"A new drug, known as daclizumab, has proven effective at reducing organ rejection among heart transplant patients.
About 2,100 heart transplants are performed every year in the United States. During these operations, a donor heart is transplanted into a patient whose own heart is unable to operate effectively.

One major risk of the operation is organ rejection, in which the patient's immune system recognizes the transplanted organ as foreign tissue and attacks it. This risk is especially acute during the first year. The death rate among heart transplant patients the first year after transplantation is 15 percent, according to a release describing the study. Most of these deaths are caused by organ rejection.

To prevent rejection, heart transplant patients are typically administered a combination of drugs that suppress the immune response without exposing the patient to increased risk of infection. The standard anti-rejection therapy includes cyclosporine and corticosteroids.

The research team compared rejection rates among heart transplant patients who had been given the standard anti-rejection therapy versus patients who were given the standard therapy in addition to daclizumab. They found that rejection among the daclizumab group was 25 percent lower.

Among the patients who did reject, the research team found that it took much longer for those on daclizumab to reach a clinical "end point," which was defined as rejection, heart dysfunction or death.

The study was published in the June 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine."

Source: HeartCenterOnline.
Copyright 2000-2005 (HealthCentersOnline)