Case report - coronary vasospasm in transplanted heart: a puzzling phenomenon

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery spasm (CAS) is an underdiagnosed disease especially in heart transplant patients, and in those patients the etiology and pathophysiology remain largely unknown, although it has been associated with cardiac allograft vasculopathy or graft rejection. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a heart-transplant patient whose cardiac graft experienced two coronary vasospasms: the first before transplantation, and the other at one-month of a postoperative course complicated by primary graft failure. CONCLUSION: Our case illustrates that a transplanted heart predisposed with coronary vasospasm may suffer from early relapse in the recipient despite of complete post-surgical autonomic denervation. Exacerbated endothelial dysfunction of the donor heart after transplant, with the addition of systemic factors in the recipient may be involved in the genesis of this puzzling phenomenon.