Background: Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for coronary
disease and elevated plasma homocysteine levels have been documented in he
art transplant recipients. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis
that homocysteine levels are associated with presence or absence of transp
lant coronary artery disease.
Methods: Forty-three non-smoking adults were recruited, all of whom had rec
eived a heart transplant between 2 and 7 yr previously. All 43 had blood dr
awn for fasting homocysteine level on the day of presentation. All patients
had undergone diagnostic coronary angiography within the past 6 months.
Results: For all patients, the average fasting plasma homocysteine level wa
s 17.0 +/- SD 6.6 pmol/L with a range from 6.0 to 36.9 mu mol/L. Twenty-six
patients (60%) had fasting plasma homocysteine levels above 15.0 mu mol/L.
On the basis of arteriography, patients were categorized as those with ang
iographically normal (n = 22) or abnormal (n = 21) coronary arteries. There
was no difference in the mean plasma homocysteine level comparing patients
with angiographically normal (17.2 +/- SD 7.0 mu mol/L) to those with abno
rmal (16.8 +/- SD 6.2 mu mol/L) coronary arteries. Plasma homocysteine leve
ls increased with increasing plasma creatinine levels (r = 0.63, p < 0.0001
) and with decreasing vitamin B6 levels (r = - 0.56, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Mild hyperhomocysteinemia is a consistent finding among heart
transplant recipients. This finding was not associated with transplant coro
nary artery disease in our patients. The combination of renal dysfunction a
nd vitamin B6 deficiency may explain the unusual prevalence of hyperhomocys
teinemia in heart transplant recipients.