This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related letter  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Liver/ Biliary Tract/ Pancreatic Diseases  • Viral Infections  • Transplantation  • Cardiac Transplantation  • Transplantation, Other  • Prognosis/ Outcomes  • Cardiovascular Intervention  • Cardiovascular Interventions, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their study of hepatitis C virus (HCV) seropositivity, Dr Gasink and colleagues¹ described inferior clinical outcomes in heart transplant recipients who received organs from donors with detectable antibody to HCV (anti-HCV–positive) compared with recipients of anti-HCV–negative organs. These results differ from prior single-center reports,² presumably due to the larger number of patients included in this United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) registry analysis and the longer duration of follow-up. However, other analyses using the UNOS database demonstrated similar patient survival in recipients of anti-HCV–positive livers compared with anti-HCV–negative livers.³ Therefore, the safety and efficacy of transplanting organs from anti-HCV–positive donors may vary substantially by organ type.

Since 20% to 30% of individuals exposed to HCV develop protective immunity (ie, anti-HCV–positive with no detectable serum HCV-RNA),⁴ it is possible that organs from these anti-HCV–positive/HCV-RNA–negative donors may be safe to use in selected transplant recipients.⁵ Currently, laboratory screening . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Ryan M. Taylor, MD
rmtaylor@umich.edu

Robert J. Fontana, MD
Division of Gastroenterology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor

RELATED LETTER

Hepatitis C in Organ Donors and Heart Transplant Recipients—Reply
Leanne B. Gasink, Emily A. Blumberg, A. Russell Localio, Ebbing Lautenbach, Shashank S. Desai, and Ajay K. Israni
JAMA. 2007;297(7):696-697.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED ARTICLE

Hepatitis C Virus Seropositivity in Organ Donors and Survival in Heart Transplant Recipients
Leanne B. Gasink, Emily A. Blumberg, A. Russell Localio, Shashank S. Desai, Ajay K. Israni, and Ebbing Lautenbach
JAMA. 2006;296(15):1843-1850.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT