BACKGROUND: Because of the shortage of donor hearts, the criteria for acceptance have been considerably expanded. Abnormal results on pharmacologic stress echocardiography are associated with significant coronary artery disease and/or occult cardiomyopathy on verification by cardiac autopsy. The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility of an approach based on pharmacologic stress echocardiography as a gatekeeper for extended heart donor criteria. METHODS: From April 2005 to April 2010, 39 "marginal" candidate donors (mean age, 56 ± 6 years; 21 men) were initially enrolled. After legal declaration of brain death, marginal donors underwent rest echocardiography, and if the results were normal, dipyridamole (0.84 mg/kg over 6 min, n = 25) or dobutamine (up to 40 μg/kg/min, n = 3) stress echocardiography. RESULTS: A total of 19 eligible hearts were found with normal findings. Of these, three were not transplanted because of the lack of a matching recipient, and verification by cardiac autopsy showed absence of significant coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy abnormalities. The remaining 16 eligible hearts were uneventfully transplanted in marginal emergency recipients. All showed normal (n = 14) or nearly normal (minor single-vessel disease in two) angiographic, intravascular ultrasound, hemodynamic and ventriculographic findings at 1 month. At follow-up (median, 14 months; interquartile range, 4-31 months), 14 patients survived and two had died, one at 2 months from general sepsis and one at 32 months from allograft vasculopathy in recurrent multiple myeloma. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacologic stress echocardiography can safely be performed in candidate heart donors with brain death and shows potential for extending donor criteria in heart transplantation.
BACKGROUND: Because of the shortage of donor hearts, the criteria for acceptance have been considerably expanded. Abnormal results on pharmacologic stress echocardiography are associated with significant coronary artery disease and/or occult cardiomyopathy on verification by cardiac autopsy. The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility of an approach based on pharmacologic stress echocardiography as a gatekeeper for extended heart donor criteria. METHODS: From April 2005 to April 2010, 39 "marginal" candidate donors (mean age, 56 ± 6 years; 21 men) were initially enrolled. After legal declaration of brain death, marginal donors underwent rest echocardiography, and if the results were normal, dipyridamole (0.84 mg/kg over 6 min, n = 25) or dobutamine (up to 40 μg/kg/min, n = 3) stress echocardiography. RESULTS: A total of 19 eligible hearts were found with normal findings. Of these, three were not transplanted because of the lack of a matching recipient, and verification by cardiac autopsy showed absence of significant coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy abnormalities. The remaining 16 eligible hearts were uneventfully transplanted in marginal emergency recipients. All showed normal (n = 14) or nearly normal (minor single-vessel disease in two) angiographic, intravascular ultrasound, hemodynamic and ventriculographic findings at 1 month. At follow-up (median, 14 months; interquartile range, 4-31 months), 14 patients survived and two had died, one at 2 months from general sepsis and one at 32 months from allograft vasculopathy in recurrent multiple myeloma. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacologic stress echocardiography can safely be performed in candidate heart donors with brain death and shows potential for extending donor criteria in heart transplantation.
Authors: Maria Chiara Scali; Clarissa Carmona de Azevedo Bellagamba; Quirino Ciampi; Iana Simova; José Luis de Castro E Silva Pretto; Ana Djordjevic-Dikic; Claudio Dodi; Lauro Cortigiani; Angela Zagatina; Paolo Trambaiolo; Marco R Torres; Rodolfo Citro; Paolo Colonna; Marco Paterni; Eugenio Picano Journal: Int J Cardiovasc Imaging Date: 2017-05-26 Impact factor: 2.357
Authors: Eugenio Picano; Quirino Ciampi; Lauro Cortigiani; Adelaide M Arruda-Olson; Clarissa Borguezan-Daros; José Luis de Castro E Silva Pretto; Rosangela Cocchia; Eduardo Bossone; Elisa Merli; Garvan C Kane; Albert Varga; Gergely Agoston; Maria Chiara Scali; Doralisa Morrone; Iana Simova; Martina Samardjieva; Alla Boshchenko; Tamara Ryabova; Alexander Vrublevsky; Attila Palinkas; Eszter D Palinkas; Robert Sepp; Marco A R Torres; Hector R Villarraga; Tamara Kovačević Preradović; Rodolfo Citro; Miguel Amor; Hugo Mosto; Michael Salamè; Paul Leeson; Cristina Mangia; Nicola Gaibazzi; Domenico Tuttolomondo; Costantina Prota; Jesus Peteiro; Caroline M Van De Heyning; Antonello D'Andrea; Fausto Rigo; Aleksandra Nikolic; Miodrag Ostojic; Jorge Lowenstein; Rosina Arbucci; Diego M Lowenstein Haber; Pablo M Merlo; Karina Wierzbowska-Drabik; Jaroslaw D Kasprzak; Maciej Haberka; Ana Cristina Camarozano; Nithima Ratanasit; Fabio Mori; Maria Grazia D'Alfonso; Luigi Tassetti; Alessandra Milazzo; Iacopo Olivotto; Alberto Marchi; Hugo Rodriguez-Zanella; Angela Zagatina; Ratnasari Padang; Milica Dekleva; Ana Djordievic-Dikic; Nikola Boskovic; Milorad Tesic; Vojislav Giga; Branko Beleslin; Giovanni Di Salvo; Valentina Lorenzoni; Matteo Cameli; Giulia Elena Mandoli; Tonino Bombardini; Pio Caso; Jelena Celutkiene; Andrea Barbieri; Giovanni Benfari; Ylenia Bartolacelli; Alessandro Malagoli; Francesca Bursi; Francesca Mantovani; Bruno Villari; Antonello Russo; Michele De Nes; Clara Carpeggiani; Ines Monte; Federica Re; Carlos Cotrim; Giuseppe Bilardo; Ariel K Saad; Arnas Karuzas; Dovydas Matuliauskas; Paolo Colonna; Francesco Antonini-Canterin; Mauro Pepi; Patricia A Pellikka Journal: J Clin Med Date: 2021-08-17 Impact factor: 4.964