Perry WA, Paulus JK, Price LL, et al. - Several medications used to avert or treat rejection in orthotopic heart transplantation specifically target cell-mediated immunity. In view of some studies describing the possible value of low absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) as a useful and accessible clinical indicator of overall infection risk in other transplant populations, researchers performed this single-center retrospective cohort study examining adult heart transplant recipients for presence of ALC less than 0.75 x103 cells/µL at 1 month posttransplant and a composite outcome of infection (including cytomegalovirus [CMV], herpes simplex I/II or varicella zoster virus [HSV/VZV], blood stream infection [BSI], invasive fungal infection [IFI]) or death occurring after 1 month and before 1 year posttransplant. The composite outcome developed in 101 of 375 analyzed individuals (27%) (61 CMV, 3 HSV/VZV, 19 BSI, 10 IFI, 8 deaths). A greater than two fold higher rate of the composite outcome was noted in correlation with presence of lymphopenia (ALC < 0.75 x10³ cells/µL) at 1 month compared with patients without lymphopenia at 1 month. Overall findings suggest ALC determined at 1 month post-heart transplant to be linked with an elevated risk of infectious outcomes or death in the ensuing 11 months.