The specificity of normal qualitative angiography in excluding cardiac allograft vasculopathy

It has been frequently stated that qualitative coronary angiography is insensitive in the diagnosis of cardiac allograft vasculopathy because the disease can be diffuse without observable luminal irregularities. However, the specificity of otherwise normal qualitative coronary angiography for excluding cardiac allograft vasculopathy has not been prospectively studied. Accordingly, 28 patients who underwent transplantation from June 23, 1989 to July 9, 1990 underwent coronary angiography within 3 weeks (predischarge) after transplantation and at 1 year. Twenty-one of these patients who had both normal 1-year qualitative coronary angiography and predischarge angiograms adequate for analysis served as the study cohort. Cross-section luminal diameters (average, 14.3 per angiogram) were measured at the same branch points on each pair of angiograms in the right anterior oblique view. Seventeen of the 21 patients had no change in average luminal diameters, while the remaining four patients had consistent narrowing in all vessels and in all segments. In these four patients, the mean fall in luminal diameter was 20% +/- 2%. The specificity of normal qualitative angiography in predicting absence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy is 81%. In conclusion, qualitative angiography usually predicts the absence of cardiac allograft vasculopathy. However, 15% to 20% of patients will have diffuse disease not detected by a normal study.