118 Multiparametric Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Surveillance of Acute Cardiac Allograft Rejection and Characterisation of Transplantation-associated Myocardial Injury.

Abstract

Acute cardiac allograft rejection (ACAR) affects approximately 20% of patients in the first year post-transplantation, represents a leading cause of death during this period and confers higher mortality in patients surviving beyond the first year. Clinical features of ACAR are unreliable, therefore serial surveillance endomyocardial biopsies are performed in order to detect ACAR at an early stage. However the procedure is invasive, is associated with uncommon but significant complications and expensive, factors which prevent more frequent monitoring thus limiting optimal immunosuppression titration. This study aimed to prospectively and longitudinally evaluate the performance of multiparametric cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) for detecting and monitoring ACAR in the early phase post-transplant, and characterise graft recovery following transplantation.