Baseline Recipient and Transplant Characteristics
A total of 22,360 patients were included in this study, 18,826 (84.2%)
with stable weight (<|5%| weight change),
1,672 (7.5%) with ≥5% weight loss, and 1,862 (8.3%) with ≥5% weight
gain. Distributions of age, race, BMI, and heart failure etiology are
presented in Table 1 . Patients with stable weight had the
lowest proportion of recipients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (52.0%
vs 53.1% vs 55.7%, P<0.001). Patients with stable weight
also had the lowest incidence of waitlist transfusion (19.3% vs 37.8%
vs 37.5%, P<0.001). Recipients with ≥5% weight gain had the
lowest incidence of pretransplant mechanical ventilation (1.3% vs 0.9%
vs 0.5%, P=0.004), pretransplant inotrope requirement (37.6% vs 33.4%
vs 17.2%, P<0.001), intra-aortic balloon pump (10.4% vs
9.2% vs 3.2%, P<0.001) and extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation support (1.3% vs 1.3% vs 0.1%, P<0.001).
Patients with ≥5% weight gain were also most frequently bridged to
transplant with a left ventricular assist device (39.4% vs 46.6% vs
74.9%, P<0.001).
Recipients with ≥5% weight gain received donor hearts from the lowest
median donor-to-recipient hospital distance (101 miles vs 102 miles vs
86 miles, P=0.004). This cohort also had the longest median waitlist
time, and patients with stable weight had the shortest median waitlist
time (74 days vs 220 days vs 417 days, P<0.001). Graft cold
ischemic times were similar across cohorts (Table 1 ).