Previous studies found that black patients fared poorly after transplants compared to whites, but less was known about how different racial groups do while they are waiting for a donor organ.
"The knowledge of disparity is usually the first step in ultimately getting rid of it," said Tajinder Singh from Boston Children's Hospital, who led the study that appeared in the journal Circulation.
Singh and his team gathered data from the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which maintains the wait list for patients needing an organ.
More than 10,000 people were added to the list to receive a heart between July 2006 and September 2010.
Singh's group found that 10.5 percent of white patients who were listed died during the study period or were taken off the list because they were too sick to receive a donor heart.
In comparison, 11.6 percent of black patients and 13.4 percent of Hispanic patients died or were removed from the list. READ MORE
Comments