Coronary artery disease in hearts donated for transplantation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Coronary angiographic assessment of hearts donated for transplantation declined on the grounds of visible/palpable coronary artery disease at the time of retrieval
IRAS ID
332977
Contact name
Mohamed Osman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Heart failure is a life-threatening medical condition which occurs when the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. For severely affected patients, options are limited and heart transplantation remains the treatment of choice yet this involves a major operation and significant risks. Donated hearts must be thoroughly assessed to ensure they are of adequate quality for transplantation. This is achieved through a range of investigations before, and during the heart retrieval process. In particular, it is important to check whether the donated heart has any disease within the coronary arteries (i.e. blockages) supplying the heart. The best method of assessment is coronary angiography which uses an injectable dye, visible in x ray images, that allows the coronary arteries to be mapped and any blockages identified. Unfortunately, coronary angiography is not available in the UK for the assessment of hearts donated for transplantation although this technique is routinely available in other countries. Instead, UK transplant surgeons have to rely on a visual and manual examination of the main coronary arteries at the time of retrieval.
In the proposed study, we would like to determine how severe the coronary artery disease actually was in those hearts which were considered unsuitable for transplantation at the time of retrieval. We propose to retrieve such hearts in the normal manner, bring them back to Harefield Hospital, and perform coronary angiography on them. Our ultimate goals are to improve our assessment of donated hearts thereby improving transplantation safety and increasing the number of donated hearts which are available for transplantation. We need to gain approval to undertake this study from both the Research, Innovation and Novel Technologies Advisory Group (RINTAG) which oversee research in the field of transplantation in the UK and from a Research Ethics Committee.REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/LO/0196
Date of REC Opinion
18 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion