Accelerated Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy in an Orthotopic Heart Transplant Recipient with Prior COVID-19

Objective: Background: Case Report: Conclusions: Rare coexistence of disease or pathology Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a post-orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) complication driven by inti-mal smooth muscle proliferation and immune hyperactivity to donor heart tissue. Accelerated CAV leads to al-lograft failure within 1 year after receiving a normal angiogram result. Viruses can contribute to CAV develop-ment, but CAV after SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been reported to date. A 48-year-old man, 5 years after OHT for non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, was admitted to the Cardiac Care Unit with 3 days of abdominal pain, dyspnea, and palpitations. His medical history included hyperlipidemia and in-sulin-dependent diabetes. He was compliant with all medications. Two months prior, he had a mild COVID-19 case. An echocardiogram and coronary angiogram 6 and 9 months prior, respectively, were unremarkable. Right and left heart catheterization demonstrated increased filling pressures, a cardiac index of 1.7 L/ml/m2, and diffuse vasculopathy most severe in the LAD artery. Flow could not be restored despite repeated balloon-ing and intra-catheter adenosine. Empiric ionotropic support, daily high-dose methylprednisolone, and plas-mapheresis were started. A few days later, the patient had cardiac arrest requiring venoarterial extracorporeal membranous oxygenation. Given CAV’s irreversibility, re-transplantation was considered, but the patient had an episode of large-volume hemoptysis and remained clinically unstable for transplant. The patient died while on palliative care. Our patient developed accelerated CAV 2 months after having COVID-19. While CAV has known associations with certain viruses, its incidence after SARS-CoV-2 infection is unknown. Further research is needed to deter-mine if prior SARS-CoV-2 infection is a risk factor for development of CAV in OHT recipients