The association between body mass index, exercise capacity, and health-related quality of life in heart transplant recipients.
Holt, M. F., et al.Frontiers in Transplantation 2024; 3: 1379695.
Aims
The authors aim to assess if there is an association between obesity, exercise capacity and health-related quality of life in a population of heart transplant recipients.
Interventions
Trial participants from the IronIC trial were divided into cohorts of body mass index (BMI) >30 kg/m2 or <30 kg/m2 for assessment of health-related quality of life
Participants
102 adult heart recipients (24 with BMI >30 kg/m2, and 78 with BMI <30 kg/m2).
Outcomes
The primary outcome of health-related quality of life was examined using the SF-36v2 questionnaire, the EuroQol (EQ) 5D-3L and the EQ visual analogue scale (VAS) and the secondary outcome of peak oxygen was assessed on treadmill with breath-by breath analyser.
Follow-up
6 months
CET Conclusions
This is a sub-study of the IronIC RCT in which 102 heart recipients with iron deficiency and Hb >100g/L were double blinded to receive IV iron with peak oxygen consumption at 6 months being the primary outcome, no significant difference was found. The authors have split the cohort by BMI and assessed their health-related quality of like and peak oxygen consumption. The results need to be interpreted with some caution as this is a sub-study within an RCT containing only iron deficient recipients, though unlikely, it is possible that the distribution and disease behaviour of obesity is different within the generalised heart transplant population. That being said, they found that there is a significant association with obesity and decreased peak oxygen consumption, a reduction of 7.4ml.kg/min in the obese (p<0.001), as well as health-related quality of life as measured by SF-36. It is known that obesity increases mortality and complications post-transplant. This cohort study provides a snapshot of the diffuse negative effects of obesity and that an interventional trial to reduce BMI pre- and post-transplant could have positive impacts on exercise capacity and quality of life.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov - NCT03662789