In order to be a good candidate for a heart transplant, patients must have end-state heart disease with significant risk of mortality within one year, including:

• Severely reduced left ventricular ejection fraction
• Severely reduced functional capacity
• Poor progress based on cardiopulmonary stress test
• A heart failure survival score indicating high risk
• Inoperable benign primary cardiac tumors
• Inoperable coronary artery disease with intractable angina
• Refractory ventricular arrhythmias

Patients having the following conditions are not good candidates for a heart transplant:

• Fixed pulmonary hypertension
• Severe, chronic disabling diseases
• Severe, irreversible, chronic impairment of other vital organs, such as kidneys, intestines, liver, lungs or central nervous system
• Recent or uncontrolled malignancy
• Symptomatic, severe peripheral, visceral, carotid or cerebrovascular disease that cannot be corrected
• Malignant hypertension
• Inability to discontinue recreational drug, tobacco or alcohol use
• Active mental illness that interferes with medical treatment compliance
• Psychosocial instability, lack of social or family support, ongoing noncompliance with medical treatment
• 70 years old or older
• Pulmonary infarction within the past six weeks
• Very brittle diabetes or diabetes with end organ damage
• Major chronic disabling diseases, such as arthritis, stroke, neurological disease, severe inflammatory or collagen vascular disease
• Recent or uncontrolled peptic ulcer disease
• Active, but treatable infection (temporary)
• Morbid obesity
• HIV seroconversion