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Donor Selection Criteria: Clinical and Pathological Insights

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Book cover The Pathology of Cardiac Transplantation

Abstract

As donor and donor organ characteristics affect all solid organ recipient outcomes, careful evaluation is essential. In heart transplantation, further aspects are also crucial: donor age (and the last 10 years have seen a notable increase in mean donor age) and potentially negative effects on the heart of brain-death pathophysiologic consequences in brain-dead donors. It is becoming increasingly clear that donor parameters are a major factor in post-transplant mortality, as much as recipient characteristics. Consequently the decision as to whether to accept a heart comes at the end of a complex process.

This chapter reviews the main principles guiding the decision-making on donor heart suitability for transplantation and gives insight into pathology evaluation of donor hearts and the pathological abnormalities that can be found there.

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Acknowledgements

Particular thanks go to Prof. Giorgio Arpesella, Head of Surgery Heart Transplant Unit of Bologna Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital until 2013, for his inspiration in creating the Adonhers project. Thanks also to Dr. Tonino Bombardini, Researcher of the Institute of Clinical Physiology-National Research Council, Pisa (Italy), for his assistance to Prof. Arpesella in setting up the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiovascular and Cardiac Transplant Pathology Program, Department of Pathology, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy

    Ornella Leone

  2. Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program, Cardiology Unit, S.Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy

    Luciano Potena

  3. Department of Cardiology, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy

    Alberto Foà

  4. Department of Cardiac Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Andreas Zuckermann

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  1. Ornella Leone
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  2. Luciano Potena
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  3. Alberto Foà
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  4. Andreas Zuckermann
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Correspondence to Ornella Leone .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiovascular and Cardiac Transplant Pathology Program Department of Pathology, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy

    Ornella Leone

  2. Pathology of Cardiac Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine Unit Department of Cardiac Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Annalisa Angelini

  3. Department of Pathology, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

    Patrick Bruneval

  4. Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program, Cardiology Unit, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy

    Luciano Potena

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Leone, O., Potena, L., Foà, A., Zuckermann, A. (2016). Donor Selection Criteria: Clinical and Pathological Insights. In: Leone, O., Angelini, A., Bruneval, P., Potena, L. (eds) The Pathology of Cardiac Transplantation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46386-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46386-5_7

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46386-5

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