Cyclosporine nephropathy after heart and heart-lung transplantation

Cyclosporine nephrotoxicity after heart transplantation can lead to acute renal failure requiring haemodialysis. In four long-term heart-transplant survivors, cyclosporine nephropathy was characterised by extensive fibrosis, with uraemia, hypertension and/or anaemia. In contrast, the long-term survivor of heart-lung transplantation who had received her graft for accelerated respiratory failure, did not develop chronic renal disease. Thus, chronically reduced renal perfusion before heart transplantation may play a critical role in the development of chronic cyclosporine nephropathy.