Study: Process used to select lung transplant patients may need to be changed

Study: Process used to select lung transplant patients may need to be changed

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Heart Disease Weekly -- Baltimore, Md., With a limited number of lungs available, deciding who gets a transplant can be a matter of life or death. New research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) suggests that the system for choosing transplant recipients in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may underestimate how long a person might survive without a lung transplant and therefore, may mislead clinicians.

The score, introduced in 2004, is widely used to predict how long a person will live with COPD. Known as the BODE score, it combines Body mass index, airflow Obstruction, Dyspnea (shortness of breath) and Exercise capacity.

Researchers who developed the BODE score observed survival for patients with the most severe disease that was clearly worse than survival after a lung transplant. In time, the BODE score became a quick way to predict survival without transplant and thus to identify those patients suffering from COPD who might live longer with a transplant. “While the BODE score …

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(2017-12-03), Study: Process used to select lung transplant patients may need to be changed, Heart Disease Weekly, 101, ISSN: 1532-4613, BUTTER® ID: 014742917