BACKGROUND: Cardiac allograft vasculopathy is a major cause of cardiac allograft rejection. Percutaneous coronary intervention has become the main form of treatment of significant focal lesions. Despite the significance of the problem, data remain scarce. With a large population of transplant recipients undergoing coronary angiography at our center, we decided to analyze the implications of the use of everolimus-eluting second-generation stents by performing 6-month clinical and angiographic follow-up.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: From December 2012 and August 2019, 319 patients after heart transplantation undergoing coronary angiography at our institution were analyzed. Subsequently, 22 patients underwent de novo angioplasty with second-generation everolimus-eluting stents. The primary study endpoint was angiographic restenosis as evaluated by quantitative coronary angiography. Secondary outcomes included binary restenosis, target lesion revascularization, and cardiac death during the follow-up period (6 months).

RESULTS: Patient comorbidities included hypertension (77.3%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (68.2%), dyslipidemia (68.2%), and obesity (31.8%). Primary success was obtained in all of the treated lesions. The analysis of quantitative coronary angiography after 6-month follow-up revealed low late lumen loss (0.22±0.40). Significant restenosis was observed in 1 of the cases. There were no deaths in the 6-month observation period.

CONCLUSIONS: In the analyzed population, invasive strategy with second-generation everolimus-eluting stents for de novo lesions in cardiac allograft vasculopathy resulted in a low rate of binary restenosis, low late lumen loss, and no deaths during the 6-month follow-up.

Keywords: Coronary Artery Disease, drug-eluting stents, Transplantation Tolerance, Cohort Studies, Coronary Angiography, Everolimus, Heart Transplantation, Immunosuppressive Agents, percutaneous coronary intervention, Postoperative Complications