Gender differences in sensitivity to the lenght of perioperative cold ischemia in donor myocardium

Methods The prospective study involved 35 consecutive patients undergoing heart transplantation from 9/2010 to 10/ 2011. Patients were divided into two groups: male graft (n = 20), female graft (n = 15). Troponin I as a marker of myocardial ischemia was measured at intervals: prior to collection of the donor, the recipient before sternotomy, 2h after transplantation, 1st postoperative day (POD), 3rd POD and one week after surgery. Moreover, apoptosis induced by heart ischemia was evaluated from biopsy specimens (before graft harvesting, 20 min after releasing of crossclamp, one week after transplantation) using bcl-2 and caspase 3.