Pennsylvania Governor Tested for Liver Transplant

Gov. Robert P. Casey, who has suffered a string of health problems since taking office, will be evaluated this weekend for a possible liver transplant to cure a rare disease diagnosed two years ago.

During the three-day evaluation starting today at Presbyterian Hospital, University of Pittsburgh doctors will examine Casey’s liver and heart to make sure he is fit for the operation.

The 61-year-old Democrat suffers from amyloidosis, which causes the liver to produce an excess of protein that builds up in major organs, causing them to fail.

The hospital, known for pioneering transplants, has not previously used a liver transplant to reverse amyloidosis, but the procedure has been done in Boston and Europe.

If Casey is accepted as a transplant candidate, he will be put on a waiting list.

“It may present an opportunity to stop this progressive disease,” Casey said. “The doctors tell me I’m a good candidate for a successful liver transplant.”

Casey would join more than 2,600 patients awaiting livers for transplants in the United States, said Kevin Sparkman, administrator at Delaware Valley Transplant Program in Philadelphia.

The median wait is 67 days, and “it would make no difference that he is the governor,” said Joel Newman, a spokesman for United Network for Organ Sharing in Richmond, Va.

When Casey’s condition was announced two years ago, doctors stressed that his type of amyloidosis--the Appalachian variant--is less serious than that which led to the deaths of Pittsburgh Mayor Richard Caliguiri and Erie Mayor Louis J. Tullio.

Casey has lost weight in the last two years, but there has been no apparent major deterioration in his health.

He suffered a heart attack and underwent a quadruple bypass in 1987, the year he took office.