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Dual Waiting List Could Increase the Number of Elderly Heart Recipients
NEW ORLEANS - November 15, 2000· by TNN Medical Reporter Virginia Baskerville

Implementing a dual waiting list for heart recipients might help increase the number of elderly people who receive heart transplants, according to research presented a recent meeting of the American Heart Association.
At UCLA, patients 65 to 70 years old are placed on a standard waiting list and also on an alternate list for hearts that might not be acceptable for younger patients. For instance, a heart from a donor with coronary disease would be unacceptable for a 15-year-old but could be useful to an older patient.
"We're trying to salvage some of these hearts and match them to people in whom they would be acceptable," said coauthor Daniel Marelli, MD, an assistant professor of cardiac surgery at UCLA. "Two-thirds of such salvaged 'marginal' hearts are used in younger people at risk of imminent death. However, when we cannot find such a match, we offer them to older patients on an 'alternate' list."
In a review of 175 patients 62 years or older, 54 were placed on an alternative waiting list. For the group on the standard list, survival was 92% a month after transplantation and 72% five years later. For the alternate group, survival was 90% at 30 days and 78% at four years.
* In another study presented at the meeting, Canadian researchers reported the successful creation of viable new heart muscle in 20 of 22 rats after they injected the rats' heart with mature stem cells from the rats' own bone marrow. The technique could provide an alternative to using embryonic stem cells and, because the bone marrow cells come from the patients, the new muscle would not be rejected by the immune system. The study's senior author is Ray C.J. Chiu, MD, PhD, professor and chairman of the division of cardiothoracic surgery at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.
For Your Information:
See the American Heart Association's statements at www.americanheart.org/Whats_News/AHA_News_Releases/11-13-00_2comment.html
www.americanheart.org/Whats_News/AHA_News_Releases/11-12-00_3comment.html

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