Imaging of explanted hearts
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Imaging of explanted hearts
IRAS ID
306603
Contact name
Jonathan Weir-McCall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The research utility of isolated perfusion of hearts (IPH) out with the body has long been appreciated. While most commonly performed in mice and rat hearts, the perfusion of post arrest human hearts has been used for the study of health and disease since it was first performed in the 1920s to understand the effects of adrenaline. More recently, the perfusion of the isolated human heart has become part of routine clinical practice in heart transplantation to reduce the duration of ischaemia between the retrieval from the donor and implantation in the transplant recipient.
Computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have led to significant advances in our understanding of heart disease. However these techniques can be very challenging in people suffering from heart failure, particularly in MRI where breatholds and long study times (60-90 minutes) are challenging in patients suffering from heart failure. Further, study of the heart under extreme conditions such as when it is starved of oxygen or nutrients are not ethically possible.
Studying the heart under IPH situations holds several potential benefits. Human pathophysiology and response to novel therapeutic strategies can be studied in a much more intensive manner than normally feasible while the heart is within the body, and with no risk of harm to patients. This can be achieved by using the hearts removed at the time of transplantation which would otherwise simply be discarded.
Such an approach would provide an unparalleled translational research model of end stage heart failure. The current study seeks to develop imaging of isolated perfused human hearts. It will do so by optimising scan protocols of the perfused heart set-up, and prove the feasibility of combining IPH with advanced imaging techniques to examine the heart under physiological and pathophysiological conditions.REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
22/NS/0067
Date of REC Opinion
27 May 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion