Sudden death in a pediatric heart transplant recipient with peripheral eosinophilia and eosinophilic myocardial infiltrates

Pediatr Transplant. 2017 Aug;21(5). doi: 10.1111/petr.12937. Epub 2017 May 14.

Abstract

Eosinophilia has been rarely reported in pediatric heart transplant recipients and has been suggested to play a role in graft rejection. We report a case of a young female patient with peripheral blood eosinophilia who died suddenly 2 years following ABO-incompatible heart transplantation. She was found at autopsy to have myocardial infiltration of not only T-lymphocytes and macrophages expected in acute cellular rejection but also of eosinophils, B-lymphocytes, and plasma cells indicating myocarditis.

Keywords: ABO-incompatible; eosinophilia; myocarditis; pediatric heart transplant; transplant rejection.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Child, Preschool
  • Death, Sudden*
  • Eosinophilia / diagnosis*
  • Eosinophilia / etiology
  • Fatal Outcome
  • Female
  • Graft Rejection / diagnosis
  • Graft Rejection / etiology*
  • Heart Transplantation*
  • Hematologic Diseases / diagnosis*
  • Hematologic Diseases / etiology
  • Humans
  • Myocarditis / diagnosis*
  • Myocarditis / etiology
  • Postoperative Complications / diagnosis*
  • Postoperative Complications / etiology