Advances in Heart Transplantation

Heart transplantation (HTx) is considered a standard therapy for patients with end-stage heart failure refractory to medical treatment. Currently, the one-year and 10-year survival is around 85% and 60%, respectively, thus calling for further improvements in short- and long-term outcomes. Furthermore, the number of patients with end-stage heart failure is increasing, while the limited number of available donor organs is still a major limiting factor to broad applicability of HTx. Thus, advancements in HTx to improve quality of life and survival of higher risk patients with new methods, such as, broadening the donor pool and making the best use of existing organs by supportive means are anticipated. Finally, better understanding of organ graft immune acceptance and connection between heart and other organs will be decisive for any attempt to improve graft survival.

The goal of this Research Topic is to collect contributions on progress made in the field of HTx and related fields, such has heart failure, diagnosis, risk factors, treatment, prognosis, graft immune response and novel treatment approaches in HTx.

We welcome the submission of Review, Mini Review, Original Research, Clinical Trial and Case Report articles that address the following sub-topics:
• Innovations in heart Failure and heart transplantation
• Potential new drugs to be used in heart transplantation
• New targets to control transplant rejection or enhance immune tolerance (or graft acceptance)
• Strategies for expanding the donor pool for heart transplantation
• New important clinical evidence advances in heart transplantation
• Association between previous disease and graft rejection after heart transplantation