Global Health Asia-Pacific July 2020 July 2020 | Page 28

Heart News
Better preservation
method for donated hearts
Longer preservation time means more people
could receive organs for transplant
Aspecially designed heart box has shown to
preserve donated hearts for longer than standard
methods, according to a Swedish study published in
Nature Communications, raising hopes it could make
heart transplants easier and safer.
The box supplies the organs with an oxygenated,
blood-mixed solution that preserves them for five and a
half hours, while standard preservation techniques are
limited to four hours. Increased preservation time would
allow organs to be transported farther away to reach
patients in need of a transplant.
Researchers are hoping they can use the box to
preserve hearts for as long as 12 hours and have
already succeeded in preserving pig hearts for 24
hours.
“Based on the results we have produced so far, we
cannot claim with certainty that we are able to preserve
a heart for 12 hours; however, our study shows that the
new method enables longer preservation than today. If
we, in our continued research, can establish that this
is possible, it would mean entirely new opportunities
for transplants. It would, for example, be possible to fly
hearts between countries, which we currently cannot,�
said Dr Johan Nilsson, study author and cardiothoracic
surgeon at �k�ne �niversity Hospital in �weden, in a
press release.
“The plan now is that we will shortly test the new
method with a group of 33 patients. In addition to the
six patients who participated in the study, we have also
used the method in an additional nine transplants. And
it still looks promising,� he said.
Cholesterol trends in
Asia have worsened
Study offers positive news for the West, but negative data in Asia
means policies and dietary practices need to change
Average levels of cholesterol in the blood are going down in Western
countries while increasing in low-and-middle-income nations,
especially in Asia, according to the largest cholesterol study ever
conducted.
Though cholesterol is an important cell constituent, high levels of the
non-HD� cholesterol (�bad�) type in the blood can lead to heart attacks and
strokes by blocking blood supply. �nhealthy eating habits are one reason
behind high levels of non-HD� cholesterol, such as diets rich in artificial
trans fats (common in fried foods) and, to a lesser extent, saturated fats,
which can be found in a variety of foods like dairy products, red meat, and
many baked goods.
Analysing data from more than 100 million people across 200 countries,
the study showed that, between 1980 and 2018, levels of non-HD�
cholesterol fell in northwestern Europe, North America, and Australasia but
surged in East Asia and Southeast Asia, especially China.
��or the first time, the highest levels of non-HD� cholesterol are
outside of the Western world. This suggests we now need to set into
place throughout the world pricing and regulatory policies that shift diets
from saturated to non-saturated fats, and to prepare health systems to
treat those in need with effective medicines. This will help save millions of
deaths from high non-HD� cholesterol in these regions,� Dr Ma�id Ezzati,
lead author of the research and professor in the �chool of �ublic Health at
Imperial College �ondon, said in a press release.
26 JULY 2020 GlobalHealthAndTravel.com