In The Flow: Conversations with Pioneers in Pediatric Heart Failure

Now called the Pediatric Heart Transplant Society (PHTS), the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study Registry was established in 1993 by a group of physicians who wanted to improve the lives of children who needed a heart transplant. The Pediatric Heart Transplant Study (PHTS) was started by Dr. James Kirklin (cardiac surgeon), Dr. David Naftel (statistician), and Dr. Robert Morrow (pediatric cardiologist) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1993. With more than 25 years of data collection, PHTS has produced over 120 abstract presentations and over 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts analyzing the continuum from pre-transplant risk factors to post-transplant morbidities which impact long-term survival after heart transplant in childhood. 

Dr. James K. Kirklin is a professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and currently holds the James K. Kirklin Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He received the ISHLT Lifetime achievement award 2020 support, for his contribution in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.

Dr. Daphne Hsu, is one of the nation's leading experts in children's heart failure and heart transplant. She has been the past president and board member of the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study  and she also reviews pediatric cardiology-related grants for the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Lori West is Professor in the Depts. of Pediatrics, Surgery, Medical Microbiology/Immunology and Laboratory Medicine/Pathology at the University of Alberta and a pioneer in the field of ABO incompatible heart transplantation in infants. In 2001 West reported the first ever series of 10 infants who received ABO-incompatible heart transplantation (ABOi HTx) in the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Simon Urschel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at University of Alberta and the Clinical Director of the Pediatric Cardiac Transplant Program at Stollery Children’s Hospital. He has led the recent clinical efforts to focus on exploring the limits and boundaries and long term outcomes in these patients from large patient registries.

Transplantation of hearts from ABO-incompatible donors is contraindicated because of the risk of hyperacute rejection mediated by preformed antibodies in the recipient to blood-group antigens of the donor. Let’s listen to our two experts as to why this contraindication may not apply to newborn infants and how this field of ABOi heart transplantation has evolved.

Please check the ISHLT History Project : https://ishlt.org/about-ishlt/history-archives

This short introduction will give you the flavor of this podcast.