Background/Introduction
Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality of heart transplant recipients. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an alternative to medical treatment, however long-term data from large multicenter studies are scarce.
Purpose
To review clinical characteristics and outcomes of CAV undergoing PCI in our heart transplant series.
Methods
We analysed retrospectively 52 heart transplant recipients with CAV who underwent PCI from 2004 to 2020. Surveillance angiography was performed in 90% of stents. Stent restenosis (SR), stent thrombosis (ST), target lesion revascularization (TLR) and patient survival are reported.
Results
During study period, 124 lesions were treated. Primary success was obtained in 99% of lesions. Mean angiographic follow up was 37±47 months. A total of 31 (25%) stents presented events during follow-up: 24 SR, 7 ST. There were no differences between bare-metal stent (BMS) and drug-eluting stent (DES). We performed 16 (12.9%) TLR. There was no association between clinical and lesion-related features and TLR. Post-PCI survival was 75.3% at 5 and 55.7% at 10 years.. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection before development of CAV decreased survival in univariable analysis (p<0.016).
Conclusions
PCI with stent in CAV can be performed with high rates of primary success and low rate of complications, similar to non-transplant patients. Our series suggest that CMV infection can have negative impact in post-PCI survival, but further studies are needed.
Funding Acknowledgement
Type of funding source: None
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