Late-onset rejection of a unilateral donor lung with vascular C4d deposition in bilateral living-donor lobar lung transplantation: an autopsy case report.

Yamamoto, Hiroshi; Yoshida, Kazuo; Koizumi, Tomonobu; Tokoro, Yayoi; Fukushima, Toshiro; Tateishi, Kazunari; Ushiki, Atsuhito; Yokoyama, Toshiki; Yasuo, Masanori; Urushihata, Kazuhisa; Hanaoka, Masayuki; Shingu, Kunihiko; Shimojo, Hisashi; Kanno, Hiroyuki; Yoshizawa, Akihiko; Kawakami, Satoshi; Miyagawa-Hayashino, Aya; Date, Hiroshi; Kubo, Keishi

A 37-year-old woman had undergone bilateral living-donor lobar lung transplantation 11 years previously for idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension. Her father donated the right lobe and her brother donated the left lobe. She subsequently developed progressively worsening respiratory dysfunction due to pneumonia. CT showed left dominant pulmonary artery dilatation, bronchial wall thickening and airway stenosis, followed by sudden death. An autopsy showed marked pathologic left dominant rejection of the pulmonary artery, small airway and large airway. Notably, only the left lung showed C4d vascular deposition, thus suggesting that antibody-mediated lung rejection may have occurred.