Background: Potential organ donors often exhibit abnormalities on electrocardiograms (ECGs) after brain death, but the physiological and prognostic significance of such abnormalities is unknown.
Objectives: This study sought to characterize the prevalence of ECG abnormalities in a nationwide cohort of potential cardiac donors and their associations with cardiac dysfunction, use for heart transplantation (HT), and recipient outcomes.
Methods: The Donor Heart Study enrolled 4,333 potential cardiac organ donors at 8 organ procurement organizations across the United States from 2015 to 2020. A blinded expert reviewer interpreted all ECGs, which were obtained once hemodynamic stability was achieved after brain death and were repeated 24 ± 6 hours later. ECG findings were summarized, and their associations with other cardiac diagnostic findings, use for HT, and graft survival were assessed using univariable and multivariable regression.
Results: Initial ECGs were interpretable for 4,136 potential donors. Overall, 64% of ECGs were deemed clinically abnormal, most commonly as a result of a nonspecific St-T-wave abnormality (39%), T-wave inversion (19%), and/or QTc interval >500 ms (17%). Conduction abnormalities, ectopy, pathologic Q waves, and ST-segment elevations were less common (each present in ≤5% of donors) and resolved on repeat ECGs in most cases. Only pathological Q waves were significant predictors of donor heart nonuse (adjusted OR: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.29-0.53), and none were associated with graft survival at 1 year post-HT.
Conclusions: ECG abnormalities are common in potential heart donors but often resolve on serial testing. Pathologic Q waves are associated with a lower likelihood of use for HT, but they do not portend worse graft survival.
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