Authors
- Boris Starčević — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia
- Mario Udovičić — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-9912-2179
- Hrvoje Falak — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0002-6502-683X
- Aleksandar Blivajs — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-3404-3837
- Vanja Ivanović Mihajlović — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia
- Petra Vitlov — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia
Keywords
allograft vasculopathy, heart transplantation, percutaneous coronary intervention, retransplantation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.15836/ccar2018.38Full Text
Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after the first year of heart transplantation. It is characterized by progressive, concentric intimal hyperplasia and has a prevalence approaching 50% within the first 10 years after transplantation ( 1 ). We report a case of a male patient who in 2007 at the age of 30 years underwent a heart transplantation due to dilated cardiomyopathy. Seven years later, during routine coronary angiography he was diagnosed with diffuse CAV. In follow-up angiographies successive progression of CAV was observed, despite modification of medical treatment, and it mandated percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with implantation of 3 drug-eluting stents (DES) in the left anterior descending artery, the circumflex coronary artery and the right coronary artery, culminating with a successful PCI with implantation of a further DES in left main coronary artery in 2016. Finally, in April 2017 he underwent a successful cardiac retransplantation. PCI is a feasible bridging strategy for coronary lesions associated due to CAV ( 1 ), which includes unprotected PCI for the left main coronary artery stenosis, however the only definitive treatment for CAV is retransplantation.