Utility of screening computed tomography of chest, abdomen and pelvis in XXXX after heart transplantation.

@entity1 @entity3329 @entity455 @entity5 @entity2 @entity1028
INTRODUCTION: Malignancy is a late cause of mortality in heart transplant recipients. It is unknown if screening computed tomography scan would lead to early detection of such @entity5 or serious @entity455 post heart transplantation. METHODS: This is a single center observational study of @entity1 undergoing surveillance computed tomography of chest, abdomen and pelvis at least 5 years after transplantation. Abnormal findings, included pulmonary nodules, @entity3329 and intra-thoracic and intra-abdominal masses and @entity455 such as @entity1028 . The clinical follow up of each of these major abnormal findings is summarized. RESULTS: A total of 63 @entity1 underwent computed tomography scan of chest, abdomen and pelvis at least 5 years after transplantation. Of these, 54 (86%) were male and 9 (14%) were female. Mean age was 52  9.2 years. Computed tomography revealed @entity2 (squamous cell) only. Non specific pulmonary nodules were seen in 6 @entity1 (9.5%). The most common incidental finding was @entity1028 (N=6 (9.5%)), which necessitated follow up computed tomography (N=5) or surgery (N=1). Mean time to detection of @entity1028 from transplantation was 14.6  4.2 years. Mean age at the time of detection of @entity1028 was 74.5  3.2 years. CONCLUSION: Screening computed tomography scan in @entity1 5 years from transplantation revealed only one malignancy but lead to increased detection of @entity1028 . Thus the utility is low in terms of detection of malignancy. Based on this study we do not recommend routine computed tomography post heart transplantation.
