We thank Rakhra and colleagues,1 whose report highlighted a group of potential donors yet to be fully exploited for organ transplantation. While this untapped potential appears to largely affect kidney and lung donor pools, we must not exclude the effect that relaxing donor suitability criteria may have on the heart.
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- 1. Rakhra SS, Opdam HI, Gladkis L, et al. Untapped potential in Australian hospitals for organ donation after circulatory death. Med J Aust 2017; 207: 294-301. <MJA full text>
- 2. Australia and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry. 2016 Annual report — chapter 5: kidney donation. Adelaide: Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry; 2016. http://www.anzdata.org.au (viewed Oct 2017).
- 3. Australia and New Zealand Organ Donation Registry. 2016 Annual report — chapter 8: lung donation. Adelaide: Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry; 2016. http://www.anzdata.org.au (viewed Oct 2017).
- 4. Watts RP, Bilska I, Diab S, et al. Novel 24-h ovine model of brain death to study the profile of the endothelin axis during cardiopulmonary injury. Intensive Care Med Exp 2015; 3: 31.
- 5. Steen S, Paskevicius A, Liao Q, Sjöberg T. Safe orthotopic transplantation of hearts harvested 24 hours after brain death and preserved for 24 hours. Scand Cardiovasc J 2016; 50: 193-200.
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