“Every Monday and Thursday morning we do biopsies for our post-heart transplant patients,” says Dr. Ali Nsair, director of the Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program at UCLA. “We do this to confirm that they have no rejection. We’re one of the first programs to adopt a blood test based assay as well, to minimize the need for invasive procedures, such as a heart biopsy. Our patients who do need a biopsy come here and then go to their clinic. We try to make sure they spend minimal time here and can get back to their normal daily life.”

Tags: blood test, Cardiology, Dr. Ali Nsair, heart biopsy, heart transplant, Mechanical Circulatory Support Program, post-heart transplant, Surgery, Transplant