Identifying Targets of Maladaptive Metabolic Responses in Heart Failure

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects are capable of giving informed consent.
• Age 19-89
• Diagnosis of chronic heart failure
• Any patients scheduled for at least one of the following procedures:

• LVAD implantation or as recipient for cardiac transplantation.
• LVAD placement both as bridge to transplant and as destination therapy.
• LVAD explantation
• Valve replacement or repair
• Catheterization and myocardial biopsy for idiopathic cardiomyopathy
• Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)

Exclusion criteria

• Life expectancy less than 2 weeks
• Diagnosed with following co-morbidities: cancer, chronic kidney disease (GFR≤30 or serum creatinine >2.1), active infection or treatment with antibiotics or persistent infectious disease (hepatitis, HIV, etc), cirrhosis, active substance abuse and/or alcohol dependence (≥ 14 alcoholic beverages per week).

Control Myocardial Tissue from Donor Hearts Inclusion Criteria

• Samples collected from non-failing hearts deemed unsuitable for transplantation by TransLife because of either acute recipient issues or post-harvest evidence of pathology or positive but benign serology.
• Normal cardiac function from medical records

Exclusion criteria

• Pathological remodeling and extensive infarction with limited non-pathological regions of myocardium.
• Abnormal or impaired cardiac function from medical records, which are self determinants for rejection as a donor organ.