NHLBI IN THE PRESS

Antifungal preventive drugs lower risk of death for lung transplant patients

Medical illustration of the heart and lung

An NHLBI-funded study concluded that antifungal preventive medications halve the risk of death for patients in the first year after receiving a lung transplant. The findings, published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, are based on research involving 667 patients who underwent the procedure from 2005 to 2018.

This retrospective study is the largest ever to evaluate the effectiveness of antifungal preventive drugs in lung transplant recipients who are particularly susceptible to invasive fungal infections. These infections are associated with a nearly threefold increase in mortality for lung transplant recipients.

Although studies have found that 90% of U.S. transplants centers prescribe antifungal preventive medications after lung transplant, there had been no prospective studies establishing the benefits of these drugs.