Heart Biopsy

Hello @naiviv. I am tagging @michelecallahan, @jeannepasquinucci and @danab who have all undergone, or had a loved one undergo, a heart biopsy.

@naiviv, if you are comfortable sharing, is there a specific thing they are looking for on the heart biopsy and what are some of your concerns?

Yes. The physicians are looking for the type of Amyloid my husband has. He was diagnosed with Cardiac Amyloidosis TTR not long ago in Mayo Clinic Jax and he has been treated for it with Vyndamax. Now they wznt to know if he has the AL type which needs chemotherapy if found.

I've had at least 20 at this point. I had one prior to my transplant to confirm necessity of transplant, and after a transplant, you have a series of them. One per week for the first month, then every-other-week for several months, then once a month for a few months, then once every 3 months for a while, then every 6 months. I'm almost 4 years post transplant, and it's once a year now. My 4th year tests will be done at the end of October, and one of the doctors told me that they may not even need to do one this year, because the tests have not shown any amount of rejection so far that are at a level that would need treatment. The biopsy is done through the neck, groin or arm (I've had all 3). It can be used to confirm disease, which they did prior to my transplant to get me on the list. And then after transplant, it's done to see if I'm experiencing any rejection. I hope this was helpful.

Hi and yes Ive had so many i lost count as a test to insure my transplanted Heart was doing well and not being rejected by my Body. Is there a specific question you may want answered? Just like @michelecallahan said it was done the same way. I never had one thru the arm but had both neck and groin. Very easy process and except for the first shot to numb the incision area pretty much pain less. I was awake the whole time which was done to allow me to leave the recovery room much quicker. Also typically the neck is preferred since the recovery time is measured in minutes not hours. The one piece of advice is to request the pretreatment cream that for me helped with the pain of the initial shot. I would apply it about an hour before the time i was scheduled to have the biopsy. Plese ask any question you like and if your doing it at Mayo Phoenix I know all the doctors and who my favorite ones are. They had a friendly competition as who was the one we liked the best and mine was Dr Hardaway, But all of them were great. Of the 5 there was only one of them I never had one done by. They all had different ways but always a very easy process. They literally did probably hundreds of these almost every week. Total time on the table was less than 20 minutes.
Have a Gread day and not to worry He's in great hands.

So glad to hear you are doing well!

Thank you for all your information. May you get better and better every day.