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The National Landscape of Heart Transplant Candidates with HIV

A. A. Shaffer1, A. G. Thomas2, D. L. Segev1

1Surgery & Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 2Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Meeting: 2019 American Transplant Congress

Abstract number: 301

Keywords: Heart transplant patients, HIV virus, Mortality, Waiting lists

Session Information

Session Name: Concurrent Session: Donor and Recipient Selection in Heart Transplanation

Session Type: Concurrent Session

Date: Monday, June 3, 2019

Session Time: 2:30pm-4:00pm

 Presentation Time: 3:42pm-3:54pm

Location: Room 206

*Purpose: Heart disease is a leading cause of death for HIV+ individuals, and the number of HIV+ heart transplant (HT) recipients is growing. Although understanding waitlist outcomes is critical for candidate selection, UNOS did not historically record candidate HIV-status.

*Methods: To address this knowledge gap, we linked data from SRTR (1/1/07-12/31/16) to pharmacy fills (capturing 91.5% of the HT waitlist in study period) to identify HIV+ candidates (defined as ≥1 fill of HIV-specific medication). We summarized listing trends over time, compared candidate characteristics by HIV-status with chi-squared and ranksum tests and used Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox regression to model the risk of waitlist mortality (treating transplant as a censored and competing event, separately) and rate of transplant by HIV-status.

*Results: The number of transplant centers with experience listing HIV+ HT candidates increased over time, as did the number of HIV+ candidates listed each year (Figure 1).

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Compared to HIV- candidates (n=35,724), HIV+ candidates (n=48; 0.2%) were more often male, African American, with higher education and heart failure caused by coronary heart disease (Table 1).

Candidate Characteristics HIV+ HIV- p-value
Median Age (IQR) 52.0 (40.0-58.0) 53.0 (38.0-61.0) 0.3
% Male 87.5 72.2 0.02
% African American 45.8 22.1 <0.01
% Coronary Artery Disease 12.5 2.6 <0.001
% Prior Cardiac Surgery 41.3 40.5 0.9
% History of Cigarette Use 45.8 42.1 0.6
% Educational Attainment Beyond Highschool 72.8 44.4 <0.01

Both waitlist mortality and access to HT were similar for HIV+ and HIV- candidates (cumulative 3-year: mortality 15.2 vs. 18.5%; transplant 63.7 vs. 60.0%, respectively; sdHR: 0.73 95%CI:0.36-1.5, p=0.4) (Figure 2).

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*Conclusions: As more centers gain experience with HIV+ HT candidates, these waitlist results are reassuring. However, with the growing population of HIV+ HT candidates, it is imperative to monitor these outcomes over time.

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To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Shaffer AA, Thomas AG, Segev DL. The National Landscape of Heart Transplant Candidates with HIV [abstract]. Am J Transplant. 2019; 19 (suppl 3). https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/the-national-landscape-of-heart-transplant-candidates-with-hiv/. Accessed May 16, 2025.

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