Cardiac Loading using Passive Left Atrial Pressurization and Passive Afterload for Graft AssessmentGeorge Olverson IV *1, Manuela Lopera Higuita *2, Maya Bolger-Chen 2, Emmanuella O. Ajenu 2, Selena S. Li 1, Hussein Kharroubi 1, Bassel Tfayli 1, Chijioke Chukwudi 1, Nathan Minie 1, Joseph Catricala 1, Allison Pitti 1, William Michaud 1, Doug Vincent 3, David D’Alessandro 1, S. Alireza Rabi 1, Shannon N. Tessier 2, Asishana A. Osho 1
1Division of Cardiac Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 2Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Shriners Children's Boston, 3VentriFlo Inc
The protocol describes a porcine ex vivo heart perfusion system in which direct loading of the left ventricle may serve as an assessment technique for graft health while simultaneously providing a holistic evaluation of graft function. A discussion of the system design and possible assessment metrics is also provided.
