Relation of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function as Measured by Echocardiography and Pulmonary Capillary Wedge Pressure to Rejection in Young Patients (≤31 Years) After Heart Transplantation

To investigate the association of catheter-derived and newer echocardiographically derived measures of diastolic function with rejection in heart transplant recipients, 48 transplant recipients had Doppler and Doppler tissue imaging assessment along with catheter-measured pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) at the time of endomyocardial biopsy. Of echocardiographic measures, propagation velocity (Vp), mitral E-wave velocity (E)/Vp, and E/annular mitral E-wave velocity (Em) were significantly associated with rejection (p <0.02), and an elevated PCWP was associated with rejection (p = 0.023) but with poor sensitivity. Weak but insignificant correlations with PCWP were found for E/Vp (r = 0.28) and E/Em (r = 0.37).