[Pre and postoperative management of a patient after cardiac transplantation performed in UCLA]

The patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (NYHA grade 4) underwent cardiac transplantation at University of California, Los Angeles. Postoperative management in our institute consisted 1) cardiac biopsy, 2) measurement of blood concentration of cyclosporin, 3) serum anti-CMV titer, 3) echo cardiography, 4) counts of lymphocyte subsets. Cardiac rejection (Ib) was observed 2 months after transplantation and steroid pulse therapy (methylprednisone 500 mg/day) was performed for 3 days. Blood concentration of cyclosporin was decreased with administration of probucol and increased with diltiazem. Presently, the patient is stable and back to normal work.