[Non-invasive diagnosis of rejection in heart transplant: usefulness of Doppler echocardiography].
Cardiac transplantation is a valid therapeutic option for advanced chronic heart failure, with a one year survival of 60-80%. Although the introduction of cyclosporine has markedly improved survival in heart transplant recipients, early detection of cardiac allograft rejection remains the major problem to be solved. At present, the diagnosis of cardiac rejection has been based on the results of endomyocardial biopsy, which remains actually as the gold standard for rejection surveillance. However, ideally the detection of cardiac rejection should be noninvasive to allow frequent follow-up of the patients. Several attempts have been made to find a noninvasive alternative to replace endomyocardial biopsy, doppler-echocardiography being the most promising technique. A review of current noninvasive methods for graft rejection detection will be discussed emphasising the importance of doppler-echocardiography.
Barba
J
J
Departamento de Cardiología y Cirugía Cardiovascular, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona.
Abecia
A C
AC
Gómez
J A
JA
Pellicelli
A
A
Iglesias
I
I
Díaz
C
C
Lozano
D
D
Herreros
J
J
Llorens
R
R
Martínez Caro
D
D
D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans
Diagnóstico no invasivo del rechazo en el trasplante cardiaco: utilidad de la ecocardiografía-Doppler.