Prognostic value of preoperative coronary computed tomography angiography in patients treated by orthotopic liver transplantation

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of 64-slice coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography in patients treated by orthotopic liver transplantation, and to compare prognostic values of CT angiography and dobutamine stress echocardiography in the same population. METHODS: Eighty-two consecutive patients, without known coronary artery disease, who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation, were included in this study. A CT angiography was performed along with usual explorations including dobutamine stress echography. A one-year minimal follow-up was performed to seek cardiac events. RESULTS: Fifty-two (65.8%) patients underwent a CT angiography. Thirty-seven (71%) were totally normal or showed nonobstructive coronary plaque, six (12%) showed at least one obstructive coronary plaque greater than 50%. Nine (17%) of the examined patients had at least one nonassessable segment. A total of six (7.6%) major cardiac events occurred in a mean-time follow-up of 17.8 ± 12.7 months. CONCLUSION: CT angiography that is normal or with a nonobstructive coronary plaque has a negative predicting value of 95% [0.82-0.99] for major cardiac adverse events, and of 100% [0.91-1] for clinical coronary events in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation. The prognostic value of CT angiography was comparable with that of dobutamine stress echography.