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

We evaluated the impact of spontaneous intracranial bleeding (ICB) in the donor on transplant coronary vasculopathy using serial intravascular ultrasound examinations. 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). 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. Donor spontaneous ICB is associated with significantly increased coronary vasculopathy.