New Blood Test Marker May Help Predict Which Heart…

New Blood Test Marker May Help Predict Which Heart Transplant Patients Face the Highest Risk TALMedora Health Desk Cardiology | Heart Transplantation | Precision Medicine Acute rejection remains one of the most serious complications after heart transplantation. While modern immunosuppressive therapies have significantly improved survival, clinicians still face a major challenge: identifying which patients are most likely to develop long-term graft dysfunction or die after a rejection episode. A new multicenter study published in Circulation: Heart Failure suggests that a blood-based biomarker called donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) may help solve this problem by identifying high-risk transplant recipients earlier and more accurately. Following a heart transplant, the recipient's immune system may recognize the donor heart as foreign and launch an immune attack against it. This process, known as acute rejection, can occur in different forms: * Acute cellular rejection (ACR) * Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) * Antibody-related rejection associated with heart dysfunction Even when treated promptly, rejection episodes can damage the transplanted heart and increase the risk of future complications. What Is Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA? When cells in a transplanted organ are injured, fragments of donor DNA are released into the recipient's bloodstream. These fragments are known as donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA). Because elevated dd-cfDNA reflects ongoing graft injury, researchers have increasingly explored its use as a non-invasive marker of transpl