A Guide to Lung Transplantation

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How Will Your Transplant Candidacy Be Evaluated?

While you may be referred to a transplant center by your personal physician, this does not mean that you are automatically accepted as a transplant candidate. You will be evaluated, physically and psychologically. You and members of your family will be interviewed by the transplant center team. You will undergo a number of testing procedures that are used to assess your physical condition. These tests may include:

Heart

• Catheterization to determine heart blood supply and pressure (test requires a catheter to be threaded through a large vein into your heart and dye injected into the heart through the catheter while an x-ray picture is taken)
• MUGA heart imaging to determine heart function (requires injection of a dye-like substance to "tag" red blood cells)
• Electrocardiogram to determine heart electrical activity
• Echocardiogram (ultrasound) to assess heart valve function

Lungs

• Ventilation-perfusion lung scan to determine blood and air supply to the lungs (requires an injection of "tracer" into a vein)
• Pulmonary function tests to measure lung efficiency in breathing (requires inhaling/exhaling into a metered device)
• Chest CT scan to get a three-dimensional x-ray picture of your lungs

Other

• Other tests may include
• Laboratory tests of blood, matching a donor organ to your body's immunologic profile
• Bone density test
• Exercise capacity
• Any other tests that physicians may believe are needed to complete a thorough evaluation

All information from tests, interviews, and your medical history will be considered in determining whether you can be a candidate for lung transplantation. Different transplant centers may have additional criteria for transplantation evaluation.

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