Coronary vasodilator reserve after human orthotopic cardiac transplantation

Cardiac transplantation is frequently associated with accelerated coronary atherosclerosis and immune-mediated microvascular injury. To determine if orthotopic cardiac transplantation impairs the capacity of the coronary vasculature to vasodilate and conduct hyperemic blood flow, maximal coronary vasodilator reserve was measured in 25 cardiac allograft recipients with no evidence of rejection 6-57 months after transplantation and in 20 normal subjects. Left ventricular wall thickness was assessed echocardiographically, and epicardial coronary anatomy was evaluated by quantitative coronary angiography. Coronary vasodilator reserve (CVDR) was measured in all patients with a coronary Doppler catheter and a maximally vasodilating dose of intracoronary papaverine. CVDR measured in the transplant recipients with normal coronary arteries, left ventricular function, and wall thickness (5.0 ± 0.3) [mean ± SEM] peka/resting velocity; range, 3.8-7.3; n = 16) was not different from that of normal subjects (4.8 ± 0.2; range, 3.7-8.3). CVDR in the five cardiac allograft recipient with diffuse coronary aterosclerosis producing 30 ± 5% narrowing (range, 25-38%) of epicardial vessel diameter also was normal (5.1 ± 0.3; range, 4.3-6.2; n = 5). The CVDR was reduced, however, in two of the four cardiac allograft recipients with left ventricular hypertrophy. In the only transplant recipient in whom a regional wall motion abnormality was present, CVDR was abnormal in the vascular distribution of the hypokinetic wall segment (1.8) but was normal in the artery that supplied normally functioning myocardium (4.0). These findings demonstrate that in the absence of allograft rejection, acquired left ventricular hypertrophy, and regional wall motion abnormalities, coronary vasodilator reserve is normal after orthotopic human cardiac transplantation. Mild-to-moderate diffuse atherosclerosis, frequently noted after transplantation, is not associated with diminished maximal coronary vasodilator reserve.