{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,30]],"date-time":"2026-10-30T16:34:22Z","timestamp":1793378062977,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Saudi Heart Association","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]],"date-time":"2021-10-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1634774400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Journal of the Saudi Heart Association"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objective Cardiac allograft vasculopathy is one of the leading causes of late graft failure and subsequent death in orthotopic heart transplant. Although invasive coronary angiography is the gold standard modality for detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy, dobutamine stress echocardiography has been recently frequently used as an alternative. Our aim was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of dobutamine stress echocardiography for detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in transplant patients. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted using a total of 150 dobutamine stress echocardiographic exams that were performed on 99 patients in our institution, with paired coronary angiogram and no acute rejection, within a median of 538 [interquartile range 371-816] days. Sensitivity and specificity of dobutamine echocardiography to detect allograft vasculopathy was evaluated. Allograft vasculopathy was defined as Grade 1 or higher based on ISHLT criteria. A positive dobutamine stress echo result was defined by new or worsening wall motion abnormality. Results Median age of the population at transplant was 34 [interquartile range 22-46] years; 76 (77%) patients were male. Allograft vasculopathy was present in 31 (20.6%) out of 150 coronary angiograms. Only 7 (4.6%) of that number were positive on dobutamine stress echocardiography. Sensitivity and specificity for allograft vasculopathy detection was 3% and 94%, respectively. Out of 7 false positive dobutamine stress echocardiograms, two were in patients with myocardial bridging. Two patients with mild acute rejection had both negative dobutamine stress echo. Conclusions Overall, positivity of dobutamine stress echocardiography in patients after heart transplant is low. It has high specificity, but very low sensitivity for detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Dobutamine stress echocardiography should only be cautiously used as an alternative to coronary angiography.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.37616\/2212-5043.1265","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,22]],"date-time":"2021-10-22T04:10:56Z","timestamp":1634875856000},"page":"279-285","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Diagnostic Accuracy of Dobutamine Stress Echocardiography for Detection of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy in Orthotopic Heart Transplant Patients"],"prefix":"10.37616","volume":"33","author":[{"given":"Mohammed","family":"Mahmoodurrahman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Josef","family":"Marek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"2nd Department of Medicine \u2013 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Talal","family":"Al Otaibi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vera Maria","family":"Cury Salemi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Heart Failure Clinics, Heart Institute (InCor) do Hospital das Cl\u00ednicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Najmeddine","family":"Echahidi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jehad","family":"Al Buraiki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bahaa M","family":"Fadel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dania","family":"Mohty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"24531","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]]},"container-title":["Journal of the Saudi Heart Association"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.j-saudi-heart.com\/jsha\/vol33\/iss4\/5?httpAccept=text\/plain","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,30]],"date-time":"2026-10-30T15:40:14Z","timestamp":1793374814000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.j-saudi-heart.com\/jsha\/vol33\/iss4\/5"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.37616\/2212-5043.1265","relation":{},"ISSN":["2212-5043"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2212-5043","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]]}}}