 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- For the more than 2,000 patients who undergo heart transplants each year, the risk of survival is better if they receive a heart from someone of the same gender, new research shows.
The study, which looked at data from the United Network of Organ Sharing, found patients who received a new heart from someone of the same gender had a 13 percent lower risk of rejection within the first year after the transplant than those who received a heart from someone of the opposite sex. Results also show matching donors and recipients by gender led to a 14 percent lower rate of rejection over the entire study period, a 25 percent drop in the death rate after 30 days and a 20 percent lower death rate after one year.
Text Continues Below
After doing statistical modeling, researchers found the greatest chance of death resulted from pairing male donors with female recipients and the most successful heart transplants occurred between male recipients and male donors.
Although the conclusion of the study is clear, study authors dont advise patients to wait for a gender-matched organ.
We dont recommend that patients wait longer for a same-sex organ, Eric Weiss, M.D., first author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at The Johns Hopkins University Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md., was quoted as saying. Clearly, receiving a heart transplant from a donor of opposite sex is preferable to severe heart failure.
SOURCE: Presented at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2008, Nov. 8-12, New Orleans, La.
Sign up for a free weekly e-mail on Medical Breakthroughs called First to Know by clicking here.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
|
.gif)
