An assessment is a process that you have to go through in order to check out your
suitability for a transplant.
Assessment will usually take from three to ten days to carry out depending on who
does it and how efficient they are: It usually starts with the basics like blood
pressure, temperature, and a thorough medical examination an X-ray followed by a
questionnaire into your full medical history. This will be followed by numerous blood
tests (at least 20 different samples). Other tests will include a 24 hr urine collection,
24 hr heart monitoring, a full lung function test, a C.T. scan, fasting bloods, A
VQ scan: lung ventilation and perfusion scan requiring a radioactive injection of
technetium, also an ECG, a full dental assessment including X-ray scale and polish,
an echo cardiogram, an angiocardiogram, right heart chamber pressure (done through
the neck), swabs will also be taken from every bodily orifice, arterial blood gasses
will be checked, and a full set of chest measurements will be taken, also you will
be assessed by a dietician.
Various other tests are taken to make sure that the major organs (heart, liver, kidneys
etc) will stand up to major surgery All these results have to be correlated and checked:
if all the results are favourable then due consideration will be given to add you
onto the active transplant list.
