Background
Ex situ heart perfusion (ESHP) has been developed to decrease cold
ischemia time and allow metabolic assessment of donor hearts prior to
transplantation. Current clinical ESHP systems preserve the heart in an
unloaded condition and only evaluate the cardiac metabolic profile. In
this pilot study we performed echocardiographic functional assessment
using two alternative systems for left ventricular (LV) loading: Pump
Supported Afterload Working Mode (SAM) and Passive Afterload Working
Modes (PAM).