Hemodynamic observations following orthotopic cardiac transplantation: evolution of rest hemodynamics in the first year.

The evolution of resting hemodynamics was studied at 1 week and 1 year in 40 patients following orthotopic cardiac transplantation. Abnormal hemodynamics after transplantation, characterized by elevated ventricular filling pressures (indicating diastolic dysfunction) and also by pulmonary hypertension, showed normalization by 1 year. In the absence of innervation, the resting heart rate of heart transplant recipients should theoretically be close to the intrinsic heart rate predicted by the age of the donor heart. In this study, a high incidence of relative sinus bradycardia (an indicator of sinus node dysfunction) was noted in the first post-operative week, although again there was a tendency to normalization by 1 year. These beneficial changes help to explain the dramatic and sustained improvement in the functional capacity of these patients late after transplantation.