Heart donation 
Following in vivo baseline echocardiographic evaluation, a purse-string suture was placed in the ascending aorta to allow placement of a cardioplegia cannula. An 18F venous cannula was inserted into the inferior vena cava (IVC) via the right atrium for collection of approximately 1.5 L of whole blood into an auto-transfusion system (Frensenius Kabi C.A.T.S., Terumo, USA) to isolate the red blood cells (RBC). Simultaneously, the aorta was cross-clamped and donor hearts arrested with 1L of histidine-ketoglutarate-tryptophan (HTK) solution at 4ÂșC. The donor heart was weighed, excised and placed in ice-cold HTK for one hour while being cannulated for the ESHP circuit.