Effects of methotrexate on acute rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy in heart transplant recipients.

Abstract

Even after reversal of rejection by methotrexate, patients requiring methotrexate for the treatment of persistent/recurrent rejection continued to have higher rejection rates than patients not requiring methotrexate. In spite of persistently higher rejection rates, patients treated with methotrexate did not have higher rates of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. This finding raises the question whether methotrexate provides a protective influence on the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in this high-risk group.