While heart transplant patients are living longer now than in years past, African Americans are still faring worse than patients of other races

Researchers found that of just over 39,000 Americans who had a heart transplant between 1987 and 2009, the percentage of recipients who died within one to five years gradually dipped over time. However, African Americans had higher death rates than white recipients, and the gap held steady over the two decades. Overall, 36% of black patients died within five years of their heart transplant. That compared to 26.5% of whites, 29% of Hispanic recipients, and 26% of recipients of other races and ethnic groups. When the researchers accounted for things such as age, type of heart disease and health insurance, only African Americans were at a higher risk of dying than whites. Immune system suppression - with drugs designed to keep the body from rejecting the donor heart - may not be working as well for black patients. The researchers found that black heart recipients were more likely than others to die because the donor heart failed or due to other heart problems and some of those complications could have been due to inadequate immune system suppression. Black patients were also more likely to be hospitalized within two years of their transplant, including for episodes of organ rejection. On the other hand, patients of other races were more likely than African Americans to die of infections or cancer - which could be due to over-suppression of the immune system.