American Journal of Roentgenology, Vol 137, Issue 4, 689-693
Copyright © 1981 by American Roentgen Ray Society
Scintigraphic assessment of heterotopic cardiac transplants
MA Wilson
and
DR Kahn
Patients receiving heterotopic ("piggyback") cardiac transplants, when the patient's own and transplanted donor hearts are connected in parallel, present special problems in determining their relative contributions to total cardiac function. Three patients who had transplants because of intractable heart failure were studied using first pass and gated equilibrium technetium-99m-labeled blood pool scintigraphy. In one patient, thallium-201 myocardial perfusion scans were obtained. These nuclear cardiology techniques provided anatomic and functional information noninvasively that proved helpful in patient management.