Gender may aid heart transplants
Study finds benefit in donors and recipients of same sex

By The Associated Press

Published: November 13, 2008

NEW ORLEANS — Turns out men and women really are different at heart: New research finds that heart transplant patients have better odds of survival and a lower risk of rejection if they get organs from donors of the same sex.

Size may be part of the explanation. Men’s hearts are bigger than women’s and have greater pumping capacity, and men who get men’s hearts fare better. But doctors think differences in hormones or immune systems between the sexes may also play a role.

The study was led by Dr. Eric Weiss, a cardiac surgery researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The reality

Unfortunately for many patients, the findings won’t make that much of a difference.

The average wait for a heart is 108 days for women and 119 days for men.

Three-fourths of heart transplants are done in men, so by necessity, several people must receive their organs from the opposite sex.

More study needed

Why the big difference? Doctors are not certain.

As for the studies’ findings, "it’s a huge data set — I don’t think we can disregard it,” but the issue at hand needs more study, said Dr. Maryl Johnson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is the head of a panel that sets policies for heart transplants.

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