Cardiac assessment of patients for haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

The expanding role of haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) renders the previous policy of avoiding transplantation in high-risk cardiac patients obsolete. Patients with amyloid, autoimmune conditions, sickle-cell disease, or thalassaemia, and patients over the age of 60 years are increasingly being offered HSCT. It is evident that the policy of avoiding transplantation in patients with impaired systolic function fails to identify all high-risk patients in such groups, and will deprive some patients of the benefits of HSCT unnecessarily. The development of an appropriate algorithm for cardiac pre-assessment and peri-transplant management is hampered by an inadequate understanding of the predictive value of various tests of cardiovascular function, the rapid evolution of advanced management strategies for cardiac dysfunction, and the development of non-cardiotoxic conditioning regimens. To meet this need we propose that an algorithm based on evidence from other clinical situations - already been found to be successful in the management of HSCT in patients with systemic sclerosis - should be used uniformly, and registry studies should be undertaken to distinguish those aspects of the algorithm that positively help to expand the remit of HSCT from those that add little of value.