In our final episode of 2023, the JHLT Digital Media Editors have two manuscripts from the December 2023 issue of The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation! Digital Media Editor Erika Lease, MD, transplant pulmonologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, hosts this episode.

First, a free-ranging conversation with first author Mark E. Snyder, MD, and senior author John F. McDyer, MD, on their team’s study “Impact of age and telomere length on circulating T cells and rejection risk after lung transplantation for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.”

A subset of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have a heritable, age-adjusted short telomere length. Mutations in telomere length can manifest as T-cell dysfunction and immunodeficiency. As T-cells are involved in the development of acute cellular rejection (ACR), the authors hypothesized that the combination of age and telomere length would impact the degree of ACR burden in lung transplant recipients—and indeed, the authors found that lung transplant recipients with IPF and short telomere length had premature “aging” of their circulating T-Cells. There was a significant decline in early ACR burden with increasing age, found only in those with short telomere length.

How might these findings impact immunosuppression regimens in clinical practice? What follow-up studies to they have planned? In the discussion, Drs. Snyder and McDyer, both of UPMC in Pittsburgh, discuss all these possibilities, as well as the the work of their collaborator, Jonathan K. Alder, PhD, as inspiration for the study.

Next, the editors explored “Early optical coherence tomography evaluation of donor-transmitted atherosclerosis and cardiac allograft vasculopathy: insights from a prospective, single-center study,” in a discussion with senior author Snehal R. Patel, MD, of the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) remains a major cause of death in heart transplant recipients, and donor-transmitted atherosclerosis (defined as a maximal intimal thickness of >/= 0.5mm on baseline intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) early after transplant) is believed to carry a greater risk for the development of CAV. Dr. Patel’s team, however, hypothesized that optical coherence tomography (OCT) may have advantages over IVUS as an imaging modality due to its higher resolution. In this prospective, observational study, the authors assessed the prognostic role of OCT, and found that transplant recipients whose OCT imaging showed advanced plaque characteristics had a significantly higher event rate after a mean follow up of 3.3 years. OCT was also an independent predictor of clinic events, while maximal intimal thickness of >/= 0.5mm was not.

In the episode, Dr. Patel shares the key features of OCT that may make it of clinical use, the three risk categories developed for the study, and what the follow-ups might be.

Follow along at www.jhltonline.org/current, or, if you’re an ISHLT member, log in at ishlt.org/journal-of-heart-lung-transplantation.  Don’t already get the Journal and want to read along? Join the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation at www.ishlt.org for a free subscription, or subscribe today at www.jhltonline.org.