Impact of Various Sizing Metrics on Female Donor to Male Recipient Heart
Transplant Outcomes
Abstract
Background: This study evaluated the impact of various sizing metrics on
outcomes of female donor to male recipient orthotopic heart
transplantation (OHT). Methods: We queried the United Network of Organ
Sharing database to analyze all isolated, primary adult OHTs from
1/12010-3/20/2020. Patients were stratified by donor-recipient sex
pairing. Logistic regression was used to investigate risk-adjusted
effects of current size matching criteria (weight ratio, body mass index
(BMI) ratio, predicted heart mass (pHM) ratio) on one-year
post-transplant mortality. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare
posttransplant survival among cohorts. Results: A total of 22,450
patients were analyzed, of which 3,019 (13.4%) underwent female-to-male
transplantation. Of sex-matched pairs, female-to-male donation had the
lowest proportion of undersized hearts using weight and BMI ratio
metrics (10.5% and 5.2%) but had the highest proportion of undersizing
using pHM metrics (48.1%) (all P<0.001). Female-to-male
recipients had the lowest rate of unadjusted one-year survival (90.0%,
P = 0.0169), and increased hazards of mortality after risk adjustment
(OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.01-1.36, P=0.034)). Undersizing using pHM
(donor-recipient ratio < 0.85) was the only metric found to be
associated in increased mortality after risk adjustment (OR 1.32, 95%
CI 1.02 to 1.71, P=0.035). Conclusions: Female-to-male heart
transplantation has the worst survival of all sex-matching combinations.
Although female donors in this cohort are appropriately sized using
traditional metrics, half are under-sized using pHM. This, combined with
its strong association with mortality, underscores the importance of
routine pHM assessment when evaluating female donors for male
recipients.