Intravenous Methamphetamine Does Not Appear to Be a Contraindication for Heart Donation in Heart Transplantation

Intravenous methamphetamine (IV meth) use in potential heart donors has been of concern due to the possibility of methamphetamine cardiomyopathy and transmission of infections. There is also concern regarding the development of primary graft dysfunction (PGD) and cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) due to possible endothelial cell dysfunction. Therefore, we reviewed our HTx data to identify those donors who primarily used IV meth in the past 6 months prior to organ donation.
Source: The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation - Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: Tags: 203 Source Type: research