Utility of the Cylex assay in cardiac transplant recipients.
BACKGROUND
Although the Cylex immune assay has been proposed as a means of tailoring immunosuppression after organ transplantation, there are limited data regarding its utility in cardiac transplant recipients. Therefore, we sought to determine the utility of the Cylex assay in assessing the risk of infection or rejection in cardiac transplant recipients.


METHODS
This study is a retrospective review of the clinical course of all adult cardiac transplant recipients who underwent a Cylex assay at UT Southwestern Medical Center between January 2004 and September 2007.


RESULTS
One hundred eleven patients were free of significant rejection or infection at the time of the first Cylex assay. Most patients (92%) were >1 year post-transplant. Over the next 157 +/- 41 (mean +/- SD) days, 2 patients had 3 episodes of rejection requiring therapy and 7 patients had 8 infections requiring therapy. The Cylex responses ranged from 17 to 894 ng/ml. No correlation was observed between the baseline Cylex response and subsequent risk of either infection or rejection within 6 months. Lower white blood cell count and African American ethnicity were correlated with a lower Cylex response.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the Cylex assay had limited utility as an adjunct to routine clinical evaluation in assessing risk of infection or rejection in cardiac transplant recipients.
Gupta
Sachin
S
Division of Cardiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Mitchell
Joshua D
JD
Markham
David W
DW
Mammen
Pradeep P A
PP
Patel
Parag C
PC
Kaiser
Patricia A
PA
Stastny
Peter
P
Ring
W Steves
WS
Dimaio
J Michael
JM
Drazner
Mark H
MH
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000208:ethnology / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000379:methods*; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009894:Opportunistic Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors