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The importance of frailty in lung transplantation and chronic lung disease

  • Lung Transplant (M Zamora, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Frailty is a state of functional decline and increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes, associated with increased inflammation and dysregulated immune and physiological systems. Frailty plays an important role in morbidity and mortality in elderly patients and is emerging as an important risk factor in chronic diseases and solid organ transplant patients. There is no consensus as to the best frailty measure, and a multitude of options are available to researchers and clinicians. The prevalence in chronic lung disease and solid organ transplant varies by organ and frailty measurement type but appears higher than in elderly community populations. Frailty has been linked to removal from the transplant waiting list, mortality, delayed graft function, and length of stay in transplant populations. Much work remains to discover methods to prevent or reverse frailty. Encouragingly, studies suggest that frailty is not a permanent state and may be responsive to exercise training.

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Acknowledgments

This publication was made possible by CTSA Grant Number UL1 TR000135 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NIH. CCK is supported by the Lucile Nelson Clinician Career Development Award in Pulmonary Diseases Research and the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. MEW is supported by the Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Cassie C. Kennedy, Shireen Mirza & Michael E. Wilson

  2. William J. von Liebig Center for Transplantation and Clinical Regeneration, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Cassie C. Kennedy

  3. Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St. SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Cassie C. Kennedy & Michael E. Wilson

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  1. Cassie C. Kennedy
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Correspondence to Cassie C. Kennedy.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lung Transplant

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Kennedy, C.C., Mirza, S. & Wilson, M.E. The importance of frailty in lung transplantation and chronic lung disease. Curr Pulmonol Rep 5, 145–151 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13665-016-0152-x

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