Diagnosis and management of cardiac allograft vasculopathy

Abstract

One of the main causes of death beyond the first year after heart transplantation is cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV). This review summarises the current understanding of its complex pathophysiology, detection and treatment, including the available data on non-invasive imaging modalities used for screening and diagnosis. A better understanding of this entity is crucial to improving the long-term outcomes of the growing population of patients with a heart transplant.

Keywords: cardiac imaging techniques; echocardiography; heart transplantation; magnetic resonance imaging; positron-emission tomography.