Abstract
Since there is no upper age limit for general organ donation, unlike heart valve donation, and since a quarter of all organ donors are 65 years and older, we examined whether the heart valves from these donors are suitable as allografts. In the period 1999–2004 the aortic valve and pulmonary valve of 100 organ donors above 65 years of age were examined to establish whether they would have been suitable as valve grafts. To compare the valve grafts above and below the age limit of 65 years, we used data on the aortic and pulmonary valves of 380 organ donors below the age limit in the same time period. Examination of the 200 heart valves showed that – just like valves from donors below the age limit – 100 of them would have met the medical quality standards for transplantation, which discriminate among optimal, suitable and unsuitable tissue morphology. The morphological suitability of the aortic valves decreases rapidly during the 4th decade of life and near to the age limit only 6% of them are accepted as grafts. The rate of potentially acceptable aortic valve grafts from organ donors aged over 65 years of 15% is also small. By contrast, the pulmonary valves are not affected by age-related tissue changes that might reduce their transplantability. The predominant majority (85%) of potential pulmonary valve grafts from organ donors over 65 years of age fulfilled the acceptance criteria, half of them (48%) even showing good tissue quality. In light of these results the age limit was raised to 70 years in 2005.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bender F (1985) Klinik des alternden Herzens. Z Kardiol 74(7):49–54
BIS [Bio Implant Services Foundation] (2005) Annual Report 2004 http://www.bisfoundation.nl/cms/mediaobject.php?id=241
Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation (2006) Organ Donation and Transplantation in Germany 2005. http://www.dso.de/grafiken/g29.html
Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation, Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft für Gewebe-transplantation (2005) Jahresbericht 2007 Jahresberichte 2003–2006. http://www.dso-g.de/pdf/Jahreszahlen_2006.pdf
Franke H, Gall L, Chowanetz W (1976) Über das sogenannte Altersherz bei 50- bis 100jährigen. Z Kariol 65(11):945–963
Große K (2007) Analyse der morphologischen Eignung von Aorten- und Pulmonal-arterienklappen älterer Organspender zur Transplantation. Inaugural dissertation, Humboldt-Universität (unpublished)
HVBR [Heart Valve Bank Rotterdam] (2006) Annual Report 2005. Erasmus MC, Rotterdam
Kitzman DW, Scholz DG, Hagen PT, Ilstrup DM, Edwards WD (1988) Age-related changes in normal human hearts during the first 10 decades of life. Part II (Maturity): a quantitative anatomic study of 765 specimens from subjects 20 to 99 years old. Mayo Clin Proc 63(2):137–146
Parker R (1997) An international survey of allograft banks. In: Yankah AC, Yacoub MH, Hetzer R (eds) Cardiac valve allografts. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 5–9
Ross DN (1962) Homograft replacement of the aortic valve. Lancet 2:488
Schenk KE (1972) Die Herzklappen im Alter. Z Kreisl-Forsch 61:392–400
Zapfe H (1970) Das Herz im Alter. Internist 11:237–243
Acknowledgement
We thank Anne M. Gale for translating this article from the German.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Grosse, K., Meyer, R., Schmitzer, E. et al. Are heart valves from donors over 65 years of age morphologically suitable for transplantation?. Cell Tissue Banking 9, 31–36 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10561-007-9052-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10561-007-9052-1