The role of left and right ventricular early diastolic Doppler tissue echocardiographic indices in the evaluation of acute rejection in orthotopic heart transplant

For patients with HT and acute rejection abnormal Doppler tissue echocardiographic indices may be caused by both: (1) altered early diastolic untwist of the oblique LV fibers; and (2) the delay in early diastolic right ventricular relaxation. Late isovolumic relaxation myocardial velocity gradient and early diastolic timing intervals (mitral E wave-EMed and ETric-EMitr) are promising new echocardiographic markers that can be used in the surveillance for acute rejection in patients with HT.