Baseline Characteristics
Baseline waitlist data included age, gender, body mass index (BMI), ethnicity, blood type, etiology of heart failure, pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), diabetes mellitus status, serum creatinine, dialysis dependence, ventricular assist device support, mechanical ventilation, and class I and II panel reactive antibodies. Donor variables included age, left ventricle ejection fraction, mechanism of death, prior cardiac arrest, diabetes mellitus status, cocaine usage, and smoking history. Donor-recipient matching variables included human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch, ABO blood type match, gender match, race match, cytomegalovirus match and donor-to-recipient weight ratio. A pre-existing 13-point risk score for acute rejection within 1-year of OHT that evaluated the domains of HLA mismatch, ethnicity, age and gender was used to assign baseline predicted preoperative risk of post-OHT rejection for each patient in the study (10). Patients were classified by their cumulative score as low risk (score 0-5 points), intermediate risk (score 6-9 points) and high risk (score ≥10 points)