PhD-student: Tor Skibsted Clemmensen (Dept. of Cardiology)

Dept. of Nuclear Medicine & PET Centre: Hendrik Johannes Harms, Lars Poulsen Tolbod, Jens Sørensen, Kirsten Bouchelouche, Jørgen Frøkiær

Background: The most frequent heart-related  causes of death after heart transplant are Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy (CAV), acute graft failure and rejection.

Objectives: Study 1. To assess the relationship between CAV and graft function. Study 2: 1) To assess the function of the RV and LV both in the acute phase after transplantation and in serial investigations during the first year after transplantation. 2) To test non-invasive echocardiographic parameters and compare these to CMRI, right heart catheterization and ¹⁵O-water PET. 3) To assess the impact of rejection and CAV (evaluated by optical coherence tomography) development during the first year after HTX on the graft function. Study 3: To evaluate the impact of acute and repetitive rejection on myocardial graft function measured by 2D echocardiography including GLS measurement.