Diagnosis of chronic allograft vasculopathy using semiquantitative stress perfusion CMR in heart transplant patients

Background Patients with heart transplant are susceptible to developing chronic allograft vasculopathy (CAV) which increases in frequency over time. Traditional methods for diagnosing CAV rely on invasive catheter based angiography and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Stress perfusion cardiac MRI (CMR) is frequently used to noninvasively diagnose ischemic heart disease and has also been used to assess CAV in heart transplant patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate semiquantitative measures of ischemia using noninvasive stress perfusion CMR in the detection of CAV using invasive coronary angiography and IVUS as the standard reference.