In addition to researching discarded human hearts, the Duke cardiac transplant team is conducting a series of swine experiments.
In the recently initiated study, the Duke team is examining the results when the donor swine heart is stopped for a period of time, then perfused in the OTS LifeCradle for a couple hours, and then finally transplanted in a recipient swine for validation of cardiac function.
Duke Translational Research Institute has funded principal investigators Valentino Piacentino and Carmelo Milano to support the project.
OTS Research & Regulatory Affairs EVP Thomas Franklin said if discarded hearts can be usable, providing additional hearts for transplantation, this research has the potential to add a completely new dimension to the solutions they are working on to offer the medical community and its growing waitlist of patients in desperate need of a heart transplant.
The Duke research project is entitled Resuscitation & evaluation of human delayed cardiac death (DCD) donor hearts on an ex vivo perfusion apparatus.
