Nilsson J, et al. - Researchers analyzed 34,681 recipients undergoing heart transplantation to assess the utility of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch in heart transplantation risk stratification to improve outcomes. The analysis revealed a greater risk of late graft loss in correlation to the HLA-DR/DQ allele/eplet mismatch. Further, eplet mismatch at the HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 loci on dis not impact graft survival more vs the allele mismatch at the same loci. Notably, they identified a significant relationship between the number of HLA allele/eplet mismatches and recipient age. Results thereby suggest the possibility for recognizing recipients with a heightened risk of future rejection and graft loss based on their HLA-DR/DQ allele/eplet mismatch load.