Donor intracranial bleeding is associated with advanced transplant coronary vasculopathy: evidence from intravascular ultrasound.

Objectives: We evaluated the impact of spontaneous intracranial bleeding (ICB) in the donor on transplant coronary vasculopathy using serial intravascular ultrasound examinations.
Materials and Methods: Between January 1995 and December 2000, 72 recipients underwent cardiac transplantation from donors who had experienced spontaneous ICB (ICB group). Their findings using serial intravascular ultrasound analysis at baseline (within 1 month) and 1 year after transplantation were compared with 90 recipients who had undergone transplantation from trauma donors (trauma group).
Results: Compared with the Trauma group, the ICB group showed increased coronary intimal thickness (0.55 +/- 0.33 vs 0.39 +/- 0.3 mm; P = .034), plaque volume (3.84 +/- 2.5 vs 2.28 +/- 1.65 mm(3); P = .015) and plaque burden (7.4 vs 2%) at 1 year after transplantation.
Conclusions: Donor spontaneous ICB is associated with significantly increased coronary vasculopathy.