Effect of Donor Simvastatin Treatment on Cardiac Allograft Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury (IRI) - 1-Year Follow-Up Analysis of a Randomized Prospective Single-Center Clinical Trial

Abstract

Purpose Cardiac allograft IRI may lead to deleterious short- and long-term effects. Experimental studies show that donor statin treatment protects heart allograft from both IRI and chronic allograft vasculopathy. Here, we analyzed the 1-year follow-up data on the effect of donor simvastatin treatment on cardiac allograft. Methods We randomized 84 heart transplant donors to a control group, or to receive simvastatin 80mg at the time of graft acceptance in a single-center clinical trial. IRI was evaluated by cardiac enzyme release. Patient survival, biopsy-proven rejections, intravenous rejection treatments and postoperative proBNP levels have been currently followed up to 1 year. Results Plasma TnT and TnI values peaked at 6 hours. Donor simvastatin treatment decreased plasma troponin T and I (by 34% and 40%, respectively; both P Conclusion Donor simvastatin treatment decreased early postoperative IRI and improved early graft function as measured by plasma troponin and proBNP levels. It also reduced the need for early rejection treatments. In a 1-year follow-up, these differences can still be seen, but the difference between groups has evened to statistically non-significant.