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Increased Rates of Heart Transplants in Patients With a Malignancy History

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Over the past 2 decades, the rate of heart transplantation among patients with pretransplant malignancy (PTM) has increased dramatically. Although heart transplant recipients with a prior malignancy may be at an increased risk for early mortality, particularly those with a hematologic cancer, death rates after the first posttransplant year are comparable between patients with and without PTM. Results of an analysis of this patient population were published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

A contemporary retrospective analysis of adults in the United Network for Organ Sharing registry was conducted among patients with PTM who had received heart transplantation between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2020. Read more.

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Researchers use CareDx solutions to monitor first successful heart xenotransplantation

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CareDx Inc. announced its non-invasive organ transplant surveillance solutions were used to monitor postoperative graft health in the first successful heart xenotransplantation.

According to the press release, surgeons from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) are using versions of two Care-Dx surveillance solutions to monitor the genetically modified pig heart they transplanted into a patient on Jan. 7, 2022. Read more.

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Sparing the Prod: Providing an alternative to endomyocardial biopsies with non-invasive surveillance after heart transplantation during COVID-19

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BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced access to endomyocardial biopsy (EMBx) rejection surveillance in heart transplant (HT) recipients. This is the first Canadian study to assess the role for non-invasive rejection surveillance in personalizing titration of immunosuppression (IS) and patient satisfaction post-HT.

METHODS: In this mixed methods prospective cohort study, adult HT recipients more than six months from HT had their routine EMBx replaced by non-invasive rejection surveillance with gene expression profiling (GEP) and donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA). Demographics, outcomes of non-invasive surveillance score, hospital admissions, patient satisfaction, and health status on Medical Outcomes Study 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) were collected and analyzed using t-tests and chi-squared tests. Thematic qualitative analysis was performed for open-ended responses. Read more.

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The Medical Miracle of a Pig’s Heart in a Human Body

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In the early hours of January 7th, the cardiothoracic surgeon Bartley Griffith, unable to sleep, went to his kitchen to make coffee. It was about 2 a.m. His usual mug is tall, and he had to remove the stand from his Krups machine in order to fit it. “Next thing I realized, I had coffee all over the floor. I had forgotten to put the cup under,” Griffith told me. “You get a bit wiggly, a bit superstitious.” He asked himself, “Do you know what you’re about to do?” Griffith has forty years of surgical experience. But later that morning he was scheduled to perform a surgery that would be unusual even for him: the world’s first transplantation of a pig’s heart into a human. Read more.

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Maryland Woman, Surgeon Run Marathon Together After Heart Transplant

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A Maryland woman competed in a marathon after recovering from a heart transplant— and brought her surgeon along for the ride. She shared her remarkable road to recovery with News4.

“I’ve been a runner since as far as I can remember. My mom used to tell me that she used to catch me by grabbing my pigtails. It’s my happy place,” Jayde Kelly said.

But one day, it came to a sudden stop. Read the full story here.

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Former Panther Greg Olsen says donor match found for son to receive heart transplant: ‘A huge step’

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The 8-year-old son of former Carolina Panther Greg Olsen, who was born with a congenital heart defect, is set to receive a heart transplant.

Olsen tweeted Friday that there was a donor match for his son TJ.

“Day 8- Today is a day of mixed emotions. A day we have prayed for has arrived,” Olsen tweeted. “Walking our little boy, with tears of hope and fear in our eyes, was one of the toughest moments of our lives.”

“We ask for everyone’s prayers for TJ and his amazing team of doctors and nurses.” Olsen tweeted that TJ has a long road ahead of him but “this is a huge step forward.”

Olsen, the former Pro Bowl tight end for the Carolina Panthers, said TJ has had three open-heart surgeries and lived with a modified heart for eight years.

Read the full story, here.

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