Open AccessGenetic and genomic approaches to the detection of heart transplant rejection
Author(s) -
E. Kransdorf,
Jon A. Kobashigawa
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
personalized medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.489
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1744-828X
pISSN - 1741-0541
DOI - 10.2217/pme.12.84
Subject(s) - endomyocardial biopsy , medicine , heart transplantation , transplantation , graft rejection , genetic testing , pathological , biopsy , transplant rejection , heart transplants , intensive care medicine , cardiology
Since Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967, over 100,000 heart transplants have been performed worldwide. As was true then, rejection remains the major threat to the function and survival of the allograft. The development of the endomyocardial biopsy as a means to monitor for rejection has allowed heart transplantation to thrive as a therapy for patients with end-stage heart disease. The need for a noninvasive method of rejection surveillance led to the development of the first genetic test for allograft rejection, the AlloMap ® . In this article, after presenting the pathological and clinical features of cardiac allograft rejection, the authors discuss the development and application of gene-expression testing for the detection of cardiac allograft rejection. We then explore emerging ‘omic’ approaches that will be the rejection detection methods of the future.