Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33687611›Full record

ArticleCell and tissue banking2021

The risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with human heart valve transplantation: evaluation of cardio-vascular tissues from two consecutive heart donors with asymptomatic COVID-19.

R Jashari, M Van Esbroeck, J Vanhaebost, I Micalessi, A Kerschen, S Mastrobuoni

Open access · bronzeAbstract readCase Reports
In one paragraph

Article in Cell and tissue banking, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 18% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. COVID-19 in donation and transplant.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2022
    Review
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

R JashariEuropean Homograft Bank (EHB), UCL St. Luc, Méridien Site, rue du Méridien 100, 1210, Brussels, Belgium. rjashari@clstjean.be.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0867-1998
M Van EsbroeckDepartment of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
J VanhaebostDepartment of Pathology and Legal Medicine, Belgium and Morphology Research Group, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research, UCL St. Luc, Brussels, Belgium.
I MicalessiDepartment of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
A KerschenDepartment of Pathology and Legal Medicine, Belgium and Morphology Research Group, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research, UCL St. Luc, Brussels, Belgium.
S MastrobuoniEuropean Homograft Bank (EHB), UCL St. Luc, Méridien Site, rue du Méridien 100, 1210, Brussels, Belgium.
Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde · BEMeridien Research · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We report on two living donors of explanted hearts while receiving heart transplantation that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on the day of donation, although clinically asymptomatic. They underwent heart transplantation for ischaemic and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, respectively. After evaluation of donor hearts, we cryopreserved and stored two pulmonary valves for clinical application and one aortic valve for research. Light microscopy of myocardium, mitral valve and aortic and pulmonary arterial wall and RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 test of myocardium, mitral and tricuspid valve and aortic wall for detection of SARS-CoV-2 were performed. Presence of ACE2 in tissues was assessed with immunostaining. Light microscopy revealed a mild eosinophilic myocarditis in the ischemic cardiomyopathy heart, whereas enlarged cardiomyocytes with irregular nucleus and some with cytoplasmic vacuoles in the hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy heart. Aortic and pulmonary wall were histologically normal. Immunostaining revealed diffuse presence of ACE2 in the myocardium of the heart with eosinophilic myocarditis, but only discrete presence in the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy heart. The RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 test showed no presence of the virus in tested tissues. Despite eosinophilic myocarditis in the ischemic cardiomyopathy heart, no viral traces were found in the myocardium and valve tissues. However, ACE2 was present diffusely in the ischemic cardiomyopathy heart. SARS-CoV-2 could not be detected in the cardiac tissues of these COVID-19 asymptomatic heart donors. In our opinion, clinical application of the valves from these donors presents negligible risk for coronavirus transmission. Nonetheless, considering the uncertainty regarding the risk of virus transmission with the human tissue transplantation, we would not release in any case the pulmonary valve recovered from the eosinophilic myocarditis heart. In contrast, we may consider the release of the pulmonary valve from the dilated cardiomyopathy heart only for a life-threatening situation when no other similar allograft were available.

Indexed as

COVID-19Heart TransplantationAortic ValveHumansSARS-CoV-2Tissue DonorsACE2AllograftCOVID-19Heart transplantationHeart valvesHomograftSARS-COV-2Tissue bankingViral transmission

Identifiers

PMID33687611
PMCPMC7941121
OpenAlexW3135246652

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.