Four Years of Clinical Experience With COVID-19 Outcomes in Heart Transplant Recipients.

Authors

Agnieszka Kuczaj, Szymon Warwas, Mikołaj Tyrka, Błażej Skotnicki, Daniel Szymecki, Oliwia Jewuła, Joanna Śliwka, Szymon Pawlak, Piotr Przybyłowski, Tomasz Hrapkowicz

Published in

Annals of transplantation. Volume 31. Pages e952888. Sep 15, 2026. Epub Sep 15, 2026.

Abstract

BACKGROUND COVID-19 significantly impacted the outcomes of patients, particularly those with comorbidities, including solid organ transplant recipients. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and mortality of COVID-19, as well as to identify independent risk factors associated with COVID-19-related death in patients undergoing orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT). MATERIAL AND METHODS The study followed 556 heart transplant recipients at a high-volume transplant center in Poland from March 2020 to March 2024. Patients were classified as infected based on a positive result from reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests or SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid tests performed on nasopharyngeal swab samples. RESULTS In the analyzed cohort, 189 of 556 patients (33.99%; 40 women, 21.16%) were diagnosed with COVID-19 following OHT. In total, 15 patients (7.94%) experienced recurrent SARS-CoV-2 infections, with 1 patient being diagnosed 3 times. A total of 33 patients (5.94%) required hospitalization due to COVID-19. Among the entire study cohort, 75 patients (13.49%) died, with 18 of these deaths (24%) directly attributable to COVID-19. In the multivariable analysis, vaccination against COVID-19 was identified as a protective factor against death due to the virus (OR, 0.22; 95% CI, 0.07-0.68; P=0.009) while increasing age was associated with a higher risk of mortality (OR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.02-1.14; P=0.008). CONCLUSIONS The lack of COVID-19 vaccination and advanced age significantly influenced the COVID-19-related mortality risk.

PMID:
42740354
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Sep 2026.

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