Alemtuzumab (Campath 1H) as Successful Salvage Therapy for Recurrent Steroid-resistant Heart Transplant Rejection

We report the case of a heart transplant recipient who presented twice in profound cardiogenic shock at Months 4 and 8 post-transplant. She had unsuccessful conventional rejection therapy, but responded dramatically to alemtuzumab salvage therapy. Both times, her recovery onset was strikingly parallel to that described after using alemtuzumab as salvage therapy in renal transplantation. The reported use of alemtuzumab in thoracic organ transplant is rare. We believe this is the first reported case of alemtuzumab as salvage therapy in heart transplantation.