Yield of surveillance endomyocardial biopsies after heart transplantation: a 10-year experience

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is recommended as a surveillance procedure for the detection of allograft rejection in all patients after heart transplant. However, the clinical yield of EMB is reported to be low and there are limited evidence in Asian population. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of allograft rejection in after heart transplantation (HT) and yield of surveillance EMB. Method We conducted a retrospective study of consecutive patients who underwent heart transplantation between 2008 and 2017. Of these patients, EMB were classified into surveillance and clinically indicated EMB and were included for analysis. The study assessed EMB results, allograft rejection episodes, and rejection treatments. All patients received induction immunosuppressant and maintaining immunosuppressant regimen including calcineurin inhibitor, mycophenolate, and 6- month tapering off steroid. T-test, Chi-square were used to analyze. Results A total of 622 EMBs of 67 patients were assess. There were 173, 114, 162, 87 and 86 procedures performed during 0-30 days, 31-90 days, 91-365 days, 1-2 year and more than 2 years after HT, respectively. Of these, 560 (90%) EMBs were performed for surveillance. The common reasons for clinically indicated EMB are post anti-rejection treatment (46.8%) and symptoms and signs of rejection (25.8%). Overall, the 2R and 3R episodes of acute cellular rejection were found in 5.5% of EMB results. The clinically indicated EMBs had higher episodes of abnormal EMB result and rejection requiring treatment (53.2% vs 28.1% and 20.1% vs 3.9%, p <0.001 for both) (Table). Conclusion In this single center study, The EMBs in asymptomatic patients had lower likelihood of abnormal result when compared to clinically indicated EMBs. the clinical yield of EMB is comparable with previously reports in developed countries. This is the largest cohort reported from Southeast Asia. Abstract Figure.