Pediatric Heart Transplant

Acute rejection remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients after heart transplant. In order to screen for rejection, most centers perform heart catheterizations with endomyocardial biopsies frequently in the first year post transplant and then every 1-2 years thereafter; these biopsies are associated with complications, can cause significant anxiety in patients and family members, and are a significant cost for the healthcare system. This project will evaluate non-invasive methods of detecting rejection using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and blood testing with a goal to reduce the required number of cardiac catheterizations.

We will conduct a two-group randomized controlled trial to examine the eMocha DOT intervention with pediatric HT recipients.In this population, medication nonadherence remains a primary cause of late acute rejection (LAR) episodes, increased number of hospitalizations, graft failure, and patient mortality. Herein, we propose an innovative approach to promote medication adherence and improve patient and graft outcomes.

Acute cardiac rejection is currently diagnosed by endomyocardial biopsy (EMB), but multiparametric cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) may be a non-invasive alternative by its capacity for myocardial structure and function characterization. Our primary aim was to determine the utility of multiparametric CMR in identifying acute graft rejection in paediatric heart transplant recipients. The second aim was to compare textural features of parametric maps in cases of rejection versus those without rejection.