Alemtuzumab (Campath 1H) as Successful Salvage Therapy for Recurrent Steroid-resistant Heart Transplant Rejection
Received 5 January 2007; received in revised form 16 March 2007; accepted 13 April 2007.
We report the case of a heart transplant recipient who presented twice in profound cardiogenic shock at Months 4 and 8 post-transplant. She had unsuccessful conventional rejection therapy, but responded dramatically to alemtuzumab salvage therapy. Both times, her recovery onset was strikingly parallel to that described after using alemtuzumab as salvage therapy in renal transplantation. The reported use of alemtuzumab in thoracic organ transplant is rare. We believe this is the first reported case of alemtuzumab as salvage therapy in heart transplantation.
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.
Reprint requests: Scott D. Lick, MD, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Texas Medical Branch, 6.120 John Sealy Annex 0528, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555-0528. Telephone: 409-772-1203. Fax: 409-772-1421.
ABSTRACT