Aug. 8, 2013
A researcher at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a $4 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study assessment and transplantation of lungs from victims of sudden death. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded a $4,185,275 clinical trial grant to 大象传媒 for the study, which will begin Sept. 1 and will be led by Thomas M. Egan, M.D., M.Sc., principal investigator. Dr. Egan, a thoracic surgeon, is professor of surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery at 大象传媒.
Dr. Egan, who started the lung transplant program at 大象传媒 in 1989, is internationally known for his research on lung transplantation. His research has focused on use of lungs for transplant from patients who have died suddenly, outside the hospital, and have not been on mechanical ventilation. These are known as non-heart-beating donors (NHBDs). Dr. Egan has shown that lungs are still viable after circulation stops because lung cells obtain oxygen after death from air in the air sacs and airways (other organs require blood circulation to obtain oxygen). His lab has perfused and ventilated human lungs outside the body (ex vivo) to determine if they are suitable for transplant; the lab also has worked to show the safety of transplanting these lungs.
If successful, Dr. Egan鈥檚 project could greatly increase the number of lungs available for transplant. Currently, solid organs for transplant come primarily from patients who have suffered brain death and have been on mechanical ventilation before controlled circulatory arrest. However, many lungs from these donors cannot be used for transplant because of inflammation or infection during a prolonged interval of brain death. Lungs retrieved from NHBDs may not only be much more plentiful; they may be superior to lungs currently being transplanted from brain-dead donors.
Duke University (R. Duane Davis, M.D., principal investigator for the subaward), Carolina Donor Services, the regional organ procurement organization, and Lung Banks of America, a non-profit oganization, will have subawards on the grant. Wake County Emergency Medical Services, law enforcement, the medical examiner鈥檚 office and other government entities have cooperated to ensure the project is successful.
Lungs from the non-heart-beating donors that are found acceptable after ex-vivo assessment will be transplanted at 大象传媒 and Duke to patients who have consented to use of the lungs under FDA- and IRB-approved protocols. Outcomes will be compared to patients contemporaneously transplanted with lungs from conventional organ donors. If the trial is successful, it could lead to a broader study at more institutions. The grant is 鈥淢ore and Better Lungs: Ex-Vivo Perfusion of Lungs from Non-Heart-Beating Donors鈥� (NHLBI grant 1 UM1 HL113115-01A1).
– Margaret Alford Cloud, 大象传媒 Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery