Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Donor Heart Preservation at 10 °C Outperforms 4–8 °C With Improved Early Graft Function in Adult Heart Transplantation: A Vanderbilt and Duke Multicenter Study
- dual-center study
- retrospectively analyzed
- 3:1 nearest-neighbor propensity score matching
+2 more
- retrospectively analyzed
- 3:1 nearest-neighbor propensity score matching
Authors' conclusion
Preservation of cardiac allografts at 10 °C may yield superior early graft function compared with 4-8 °C static cold storage. However, further prospective studies are required to delineate the optimal donor heart preservation temperature.
Study context
- Population
- Adult single-organ, donation-after-brain-death heart transplant recipients at 2 high-volume centers, January 2020 to April 2025
- Participants
- 365 recipients
- Comparison
- allografts preserved at 10 °C versus 4-8 °C static cold storage
- 10 °Cn = 113
- 4-8 °Cn = 252
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Donor age (baseline)
P = 0.004
Further findings
Primary graft dysfunction · less with 10 °C · After matching
P = 0.008
Survival · 1-year · improved with 10 °C · After matching
P = 0.02
Original publication
Donor Heart Preservation at 10 °C Outperforms 4–8 °C With Improved Early Graft Function in Adult Heart Transplantation: A Vanderbilt and Duke Multicenter Study. Circ Heart Fail. Published 5 August 2026. doi:10.1161/circheartfailure.126.014240
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it