Heart transplant waiting list implications of increased ventricular assist device use as a bridge strategy: A national analysis

Novel Imaging Technologies for Accurate Assessment of Cardiac Allograft Performance

Purpose of the Review

The current lack of objective and quantitative assessment techniques to determine cardiac graft relative viability results in risk-averse decision-making, which negatively impact the utilization of cardiac grafts. The purpose of this review is to highlight the current deficiencies in cardiac allograft assessment before focusing on novel cardiac assessment techniques that exploit conventional and emerging imaging modalities, including ultrasound, magnetic resonance, and spectroscopy.

Recent Findings

Extensive work is ongoing by the scientific community to identify improved objective metrics and tools for cardiac graft assessment, with the goal to safely increasing the number and proportion of hearts accepted for transplantation.

Summary

This review briefly discusses the in situ and ex vivo tools currently available for clinical organ assessment, before focusing on the individual capabilities of ultrasound, magnetic resonance, and spectroscopy to provide insightful, non-invasive information regarding cardiac graft functional and metabolic status that may be used to predict outcome after transplantation.