Doppler Echocardiographic Evaluation Of Left-Ventricular Diastolic Function In Acute Graft-Rejection After Heart-Transplantation

In order to study abnormalities of left ventricular diastolic function (LVDF) in heart transplant patients and their possible association with graft rejection, 21 patients who had recently undergone orthotopic heart transplantation were evaluated prospectively, on the day of endomyocardial biopsy, by pulsed and continuous Doppler echocardiography (DEC). Investigation of the LVDF consisted of pulsed DEC of the mitral valve in apical projection (4 cavities) with measurement of isovolumetric relaxation time (IVR), peak velocity of rapid ventricular filling (E), peak velocity of graft atrial contraction (A) and transmitral gradient decrease half-time (mitral T1/2). Each patients had 5 DEC examinations on average over a 2-month period. In patients with subsevere to severe rejection mitral T1/2 decreased significantly from 76.46 +/- 11.6 ms in the absence of rejection to 47 +/- 13.7 ms during rejection (P less than 0.001). When mitral T1/2 decreased by 25 p. 100 or more between two successive DEC, rejection was present in 89 p. 100 of the cases. It is concluded that Doppler echocardiographic studies of left ventricular diastolic function provide useful information in the follow-up of heart transplant recipients and offer hopes, in a not too distant future, of non-invasive detection of cardiac graft rejection.