CytoSorbents is a therapeutic device company using blood purification to modulate the immune system, reduce severe inflammation, and prevent or treat organ failure caused by life-threatening illnesses. The company today announced the presentation of data from its research collaboration at the Annual Meeting of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association in Hawaii, being held today.
Dr. David Rabkin, assistant professor of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Wash., will present the potential future use of CytoSorb® blood purification system to protect the viability of organs donated by patients who are officially dead from irreversible brain injury, but whose organs are still working.
“While the vast majority of organ transplants rely on cadaveric donors, it’s long been appreciated that brain death creates an environment hostile to organ function. This effect is particularly pronounced in the heart where estimates suggest that about 20 percent of potential organ donors are excluded from cardiac donation due to the effects of brain death on cardiac function,” Dr. Rabkin stated in the press release.
“One of the components of the body’s reaction to brain death is a surge in inflammatory cytokines which have been shown in other contexts to importantly depress heart function. Using the CytoSorb hemoadsorption technology in a porcine model we demonstrated that cytokine filtration significantly improves heart function after brain death compared to brain dead animals that did not undergo cytokine filtration. This may have important implications for expanding the cardiac donor pool and reducing the increasing disparity between the supply and demand of hearts for transplantation and warrants further study.”
Dr. Chan said the data demonstrates the harmful effect excessive cytokines have on vital organs, and shows CytoSorb’s ability to protect organ function in a potentially important clinical application.
CytoSorb is currently approved to treat excessive levels of cytokines in the EU.
For more information visit: www.cytosorbents.com
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