Improvement of cardiac function after kidney transplantation with dilated cardiomyopathy and long dialysis vintage.

Patients with long dialysis vintage have low cardiac output for various reasons. Although kidney transplantation is known to improve cardiac mortality, patients are sometimes evaluated as contraindicated for transplantation because of cardiac risk. We successfully performed kidney transplantation for a patient with a long dialysis vintage and dilated cardiomyopathy. Sequential (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIBG) scintigraphy suggested that amelioration of uraemia improved cardiac function. Kidney transplantation for patients with severely impaired cardiac function is safe and effective under careful perioperative monitoring irrespective of dialysis vintage. Sequential (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy can be used as an evaluation tool for the improvement in cardiac function.