Cardiac Transplant Rejection

The purpose of this research is to detect episodes of rejection versus non-rejection after cardiac transplant and the diagnostic accuracy of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm using the data from an ECG (electrocardiogram) and Cardiac Ultrasound (Echocardiogram and/or point of care ultrasound).

Magnetic resonance elastography is a novel non-invasive MRI technique to obtain stiffness of soft tissues such as liver, heart, kidneys, etc. In this imaging technique a person is laid in an MR scanner and a paddle (plastic drum) is put on the area of interest to send sound vibration via a speaker placed outside the scan room which is connecting plastic drum via a plastic tube. These vibrations are scanned using MRI to estimate the stiffness of soft tissues such as liver, heart, kidneys, breast etc.

This pilot study aims to assess whether 18F-FDG PET CT imaging has the potential in diagnosing cardiac rejection. The investigators aim to recruit 20 heart transplant subjects within two groups of 10 subjects each. One group will have participants with definite rejection and the other group will have participants with definite no rejection. Subjects will be placed into study groups based on their heart muscle biopsy, echocardiogram, clinical symptoms, ECG, and presence or absence of donor specific antibodies. Each group will then undertake a 18F-FDG PET CT scan to identify whether this imaging modality has a role in identifying cardiac rejection. The study subjects and the research team will be blinded to the results of the PET CT until the end of the study.