Routine screening for HLA Antibodies in Heart Transplant patients-Does it affect clinical decision making?

Background: We aimed to assess outcomes in patients with and without donor specific antibodies (DSA) and to evaluate the relationship between DSA presence and graft function, cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), and mortality.

Methods: The study population comprises 193 consecutive long-term heart transplanted (HTx) patients who underwent DSA surveillance between 2016 and 2022. The patients were prospectively screened for CAV through serial coronary angiograms, graft function impairment through serial echocardiograms, and cardiac biomarkers.