Trends in underlying causes of death in solid organ transplant recipients between 2010 and 2020: Using the CLASS method for determining specific causes of death

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 25;17(7):e0263210. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263210. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Monitoring specific underlying causes of death in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients is important in order to identify emerging trends and health challenges. This retrospective cohort study includes all SOT recipients transplanted at Rigshospitalet between January 1st, 2010 and December 31st, 2019. The underlying cause of death was determined using the newly developed Classification of Death Causes after Transplantation (CLASS) method. Cox regression analyses assessed risk factors for all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Of the 1774 SOT recipients included, 299 patients died during a total of 7511 person-years of follow-up (PYFU) with cancer (N = 57, 19%), graft rejection (N = 55, 18%) and infections (N = 52, 17%) being the most frequent causes of death. We observed a lower risk of all-cause death with increasing transplant calendar year (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.86-0.96 per 1-year increase), alongside death from graft rejection (HR 0.84 per year, 95% CI 0.74-0.95) and death from infections (HR 0.86 per year, 95% CI 0.77-0.97). Further, there was a trend towards lower cumulative incidence of death from cardiovascular disease, graft failure and cancer in more recent years, while death from other organ specific and non-organ specific causes did not decrease. All-cause mortality among SOT recipients has decreased over the past decade, mainly due to a decrease in graft rejection- and infection-related deaths. Conversely, deaths from a broad range of other causes have remained unchanged, suggesting that cause of death among SOT recipients is increasingly diverse and warrants a multidisciplinary effort and attention in the future.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cause of Death
  • Graft Rejection
  • Humans
  • Organ Transplantation* / adverse effects
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Transplant Recipients

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (grant number DNRF126, CHIP & PERSIMUNE). Further, Rigshospitalets Forskningspuljer pre-graduate research grant (project account number: E-23998-01) was awarded to author AS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.