Atrial arrhythmia in a patient after bicaval heart transplantation: Evidence for recipient-to-donor conduction

Atrial fibrillation after orthotopic heart transplantatation: Pathophysiology and clinical impact

“…The higher rate of late AF in male patients suggests that also classical AF predisposing factors can be involved; in addition, the control of artery blood pressure was found essential to reduce AF recurrences in these patients. Vaseghi et al [21] suggested a potential involvement of parasympathetic re-innervation, but without reporting an objective demonstration, while a recent case report described PVs reconnection several years after OHT as a cause of atrial tachyarrhythmia [31] . As previously described [8] , [16] , [21] , [22] , we observed a significantly higher mortality in patients with AF episodes, confirmed by Kaplan Meyer and Cox regression analysis.…”

Atrial fibrillation before heart transplantation is a risk factor for post‐transplant atrial fibrillation and mortality

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Although it is generally assumed that the donor atria are electrically isolated from the remnants of the recipient atria by suture lines, several case reports have reported recipient-to-donor atrioatrial conduction across the suture lines in HTX recipients. [18][19][20][21][22][23] Patients with AF before HTX may therefore be more likely to develop early post-transplant AF as an expression of a chronic disease state. By contrast, early post-transplant AF in patients who did not suffer from AF before HTX may rather result from graft rejection or graft failure indicating an acute disease process.…”

“…However, data on the association between AF before HTX and AF in the early stage after HTX are limited to case reports and have not been studied systematically. [18][19][20][21][22][23] We therefore sought to investigate the association between AF before HTX and early post-transplant AF within 30 days after HTX as well as the underlying risk factors and clinical outcomes.…”

“…However, data on the association between AF before HTX and AF in the early stage after HTX are limited to case reports and have not been studied systematically. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 …”

Posttransplant atrial fibrillation: Evidence of early posttransplant recipient‐to‐donor atrioatrial connections

“…While atrial arrhythmia originating from the recipient's heart has been reported in the literature, these cases have occurred at least 5 years posttransplant. [10][11][12][13][14] This makes our case unique as it shows that atrioatrial connection can occur as early as a few months after heart transplant. Our patient had a history of permanent atrial fibrillation before transplant; this raises the suspicion that continuous impulses from the recipient's atrial remnant may have enhanced the induction of ionic current between atrial tissues and/or accelerated the formation of electrical conduits within the scar tissues bordering donor and recipient's atrial tissue.…”