Objective: To assess the influence of nutritional status on mortality in lung transplant (LT) recipients.
Methods: A total of 114 patients underwent lung-transplantation between January 1999 and June 2005. Mortality after lung transplantation was examined based upon body mass index (BMI) categories: BMI < 18.5 kg/m(2) (group I); BMI 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m(2) (group II, reference group); BMI 25 to 27.5 kg/m(2) (group III); and BMI > 27.5 kg/m(2) (group IV). Levels of serum albumin and serum prealbumin were determined before transplantation. We constructed a Cox proportional hazards model for overall survival considering mortality as the outcome. The final model was adjusted by age.
Results: We analyzed 114 transplants in 112 patients. The population included 44 single and 70 bilateral LTs. Mean recipient age was 53.9 +/- 10.9 years. The hazard ratio of the risk of death in group IV was higher than in the reference group (hazard ratio: 3.55, 95% CI: 1.19 to 10.66; P = .024). Serum prealbumin </=18 g/dL was a risk factor for mortality (hazard ratio: 3.01, 95% CI: 1.21 to 7.51; P = .018). No difference was observed in serum albumin levels related to mortality (P = .089).
Conclusions: Pretransplant BMI > 27.5 kg/m(2) was a predictor of increased mortality after transplantation. Low pretransplant prealbumin levels in lung recipients were associated with mortality after transplantation.