Table 1. Characteristics of eligible studies.
| Study | Year | Country | Design | Study population (mean HTX time) | Method of patient enrollment | Mean age (yrs) | Sample size (male) | Mean interval of CMR and EMB | Histological criteria | Blind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisenberg et al. (20) | 1987 | Canada | P | HTX patients for routine check (>25 days) | – | 38 | 25 [2] | Same day | N | – |
| Marie et al. (21) | 1998 | French | P | HTX patients for routine check or suspected with ACAR (32 months) | – | 51 | 43 | Within 7 days | Billingham et al. (27) | – |
| Marie et al. (22) | 2001 | French | R | HTX patients for routine check or suspected with ACAR (8 months) | – | 50 | 68 [57] | 1 day | Billingham et al. (27) | – |
| Taylor et al. (23) | 2010 | Australia | P | HTX patients with no ACAR (802 days) | – | 50 | 50 [42] | 3.3 days | Stewart et al. (28) | Double blind |
| HTX patients with ACAR (420 days) | 43 | |||||||||
| HTX patients suspected with ACAR (2725 days) | 45 | |||||||||
| Usman et al. (24) | 2012 | USA | P | HTX patients for routine check or suspected with ACAR (within 1 year) | – | 55 | 53 [32] | 1.6 days | Gradek et al. (29), Tan et al. (30) | Double blind |
| Healthy control | ||||||||||
| Miller et al. (25) | 2014 | UK | P | HTX patients for routine check (6.9, 10.9, 16.6 and 22.3 weeks) | Consecutive | 49 | 22 [17] | Same day | Stewart et al. (28) | Double blind |
| Healthy control | ||||||||||
| Krieghoff et al. (26) | 2014 | Germany | P | HTX patients for routine check or suspected with ACAR (77 months) | Consecutive | 52 | 73 | Same day | Stewart et al. (28) | Double blind |
CMR, cardiac magnetic resonance; EMB, endomyocardial biopsy; HTX, heart transplantation; ACAR, acute cardiac allograft rejection; P, prospective; R, retrospective; –, not mentioned; N, no reference.