Abstract
Heart transplantation (HT) is an established life-saving treatment option for patients with end-stage heart failure. Despite many advances in the field, the development of acute cellular rejection (ACR) and cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) represent significant causes of 1- and 5-year morbidity and mortality, respectively. The search for noninvasive techniques to assess cardiac allograft function and detect treatable ACR and CAV remains a priority objective for heart transplant professionals. In this review we will: 1) highlight the clinical significance of ACR and CAV in adult cardiac transplant recipients and 2) discuss how different noninvasive imaging modalities (echocardiography, cardiac computed tomography, myocardial perfusion imaging, and cardiac magnetic resonance) have been used in the evaluation of these clinical challenges after HT.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1126-1140 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2009 |
Keywords
- acute cellular rejection
- cardiac imaging
- heart transplant
- vasculopathy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging