Cardiovascular tissue banking activity during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: evolution of national protocols and Lombardy experience

Cardiovascular tissue banking activity during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: evolution of national protocols and Lombardy experience The worldwide pandemic outbreak due to severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has created unprecedented challenges for public health services. Lombardy, region of the Northern Italy, has been the first area in the Western world whose organs and tissues procurement programs have had to face the virus pandemic emergency. We retrospectively collected and analyzed data about cardiovascular tissues (CT) in 2019 and in 2020. We aimed to describe the rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 regulation laws for tissue donor’s selection and harvesting from February 2020 until January 2021. As expected the number of CT donors in 2020 was significantly lower than those of 2019 (66 vs. 99, p value 0.02). The total number of CT collected from donors have been 254 in 2019 and 206 in 2020 (p 0.28). Femoral arteries were the most required vascular tissues (55.5% in 2019 and 40% in 2020). Fifty-five and forty-eight pulmonary valves were implanted in 2019 and 2020, respectively. No differences were found for the types of CT requests between the 2 years. The median age of receivers of vascular tissues was 69.6 ± 14.6 years in the 2019 and 63.3 ± 14.9 years in 2020 (p \0.01). The median age of receivers of pulmonary and aortic valves did not differ between the 2 years (9.32 ± 11.49 vs. 8.36 ± 10.66 and 48.67 ± 27.19 vs. 37.14 ± 31.97 respectively). Despite the dramatically reduction of donors, the number of CT collected has not decreased significantly and so far the CT distribution rate is comparable to those of 2019SARS-CoV-2大流行期间的心血管组织库工作：国家规程演变与伦巴第大区实践经验 由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）引发的全球大流行，给公共卫生服务体系带来了前所未有的挑战。意大利北部的伦巴第大区是西方世界首个其器官与组织获取项目不得不应对新冠病毒大流行紧急状况的地区。本研究回顾性收集并分析了2019年与2020年的心血管组织（cardiovascular tissues, CT）相关数据，旨在描述2020年2月至2021年1月期间，针对组织供体筛选与获取的SARS-CoV-2相关法规的快速演变情况。 正如预期，2020年的心血管组织供体数量显著低于2019年（66例 vs 99例，p=0.02）。2019年从供体采集的心血管组织总数量为254份，2020年为206份（p=0.28）。股动脉是需求量最高的血管组织（2019年占比55.5%，2020年占比40%）。2019年与2020年分别植入了55枚与48枚肺动脉瓣。两年间的心血管组织申请类型未发现显著差异。2019年血管组织受者的中位年龄为69.6±14.6岁，2020年为63.3±14.9岁（p<0.01）。两年间肺动脉瓣与主动脉瓣受者的中位年龄无显著差异（分别为9.32±11.49岁 vs 8.36±10.66岁，以及48.67±27.19岁 vs 37.14±31.97岁）。尽管供体数量大幅减少，但采集到的心血管组织总数并未出现显著下降，截至目前心血管组织的分配率与2019年相当。