Prospective Registry of Impact of Level and Quality of Immunosuppression on Onset and Pattern of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy Evaluated by OCT.
Prospective Registry of Impact of Level and Quality of Immunosuppression on Onset and Pattern of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy Evaluated by OCT.
The aim of this study is to use the high resolution of optical coherence tomography to assess the prevalence of different types of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) in cardiac transplanted patients and correlate those results with the level of immunosuppression
CAV is the most common reason for retransplantation at >1 year and one of the main risk factors for mortality after cardiac transplantation. For this registry, patients planned to undergo coronary angiography either as a part of routine follow-up to screen for relevant cardiac allograft vasculopathy or because of clinical suspicion of relevant cardiac allograft vasculopathy will be considered eligible.
Since the "Transplant Care Guidelines of 2010" recommend the use of intracoronary imaging during angiographic follow-up in patients after heart transplantation to recognize CAV as early as possible, OCT has become integral part of the CAV diagnostic in our center. Through its high resolution OCT (so called virtual histology) provides the earliest possible diagnosis of CAV as well as new insights into the differentiation of CAV types. We aim to correlate the findings of OCT with the level of immunosuppression.
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria: