Donor Selection for Heart Transplantation in 2024.

The number of candidates on the waiting list for heart transplantation (HT) continues to far outweigh the number of available organs, and the donor heart nonuse rate in the United States remains significantly higher than that of other regions such as Europe. Although predicting outcomes in HT remains challenging, our overall understanding of the factors that play a role in post-HT outcomes continues to grow. We observe that many donor risk factors that are deemed "high-risk" do not necessarily always adversely affect post-HT outcomes, but are in fact nuanced and interact with other donor and recipient risk factors.

Paul I. Terasaki, Ph.D: a pioneer in transplant medicine and a dedicated philanthropist.

In the last five decades, remarkable surgical and medical advances ensued within the field of organ transplantation. These strides were marked by significant breakthroughs in transplant immunology, with Dr. Paul I.

Therapeutic plasma exchange is associated with increased survival in heart transplant recipients experiencing severe primary graft dysfunction.

Background: Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) remains the leading cause of 30-day mortality post-heart transplantation (HTx). HTx recipients experiencing severe PGD have been found to have high levels of circulating proteins associated with PGD occurrence and post-HTx survival. Whether treating these patients with therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) can attenuate ongoing immunological and inflammatory processes and improve post-transplant outcomes has not been well-investigated.

The outcome of restrictive cardiac allograft physiology in severe coronary allograft vasculopathy.

Background: Microvascular dysfunction after heart transplantation leads to restrictive cardiac allograft physiology (RCP), which is classified as severe coronary allograft vasculopathy (CAV); however, the prognosis of RCP remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to elucidate the prognosis of RCP in comparison with that of severe angiographic CAV.

Methods: We assessed 116 patients with severe CAV who underwent heart transplantation between 2004 and 2023.

Ten-year follow-up cohort of the everolimus versus azathioprine multinational prospective study focusing on intravascular ultrasound findings.

Background: Long-term clinical outcomes of early intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) findings in a prospective cohort of heart transplantation (HTx) patients have not been evaluated.

Methods: This study included patients from 20 centers across Europe and North and South America among the original cohort of the RAD B253 study. Among these patients, 91 had paired IVUS images at baseline and 1-year post-transplant: everolimus 1.