Background and Objectives: Inspite donor hearts might be more sufficient than recipients in Korea, heart transplantatino delay has not improved over the years. Here, we compared the characteristics of the donor hearts that were actually transplanted after brain death, and tried to seek effective utilization of transplantable hearts. Subjects and Methods: From 592 brain death cases from Jan. 2008. to Apr. 2010. that were registered with Konos (KOrean Network for Organ Sharing), 341 cases agreed on heart donation. These cases were grouped into those unfit for heart donation(Group A), fit for donation but wasn���t transplanted(GroupB), and that were actually transplanted(GroupC). Each group was analyzed on age, sex, admission length, BMI, blood types (ABO), cause of death, past medical history, vasopressor use, CPR, ECG, and echocardiogram. Results: From the 341(57% of total) potential heart donors (Group A:185(54.3%), Group B:89(26%), Group C:67(19.6%)), the mean age of the groups (A:52.9, B:39, C:33, A+B:43, B+C:36.3) were significantly different(p-value; Avs.B:<0.001, Bvs.C:0.03, A+Bvs.C:0.005, Avs.B+C:0.001). Also, vasopressor use (p-value: Avs.B:0.03, Bvs.C:0.04, A+Bvs.C:0.05, Avs.B+C:0.03), history of hypertension (p-value: Avs.B:0.06, Bvs.C:05, A+Bvs.C:0.06, Avs.B+C:0.05), and minor abnormalities in echocardiogram(p-value: Avs.B:0.5, Bvs.C:0.06, A+Bvs.C:0.04, Avs.B+C:0.02) showed significant difference among the groups. Blood type A had a higher percentage of being fit for donation, but the actual transplantation rate was lower.(p-value: Avs.B:0.01, Bvs.C:0.05, A+Bvs.C:0.22, Avs.B+C:0.005). There were no differences in sex, admission length, BMI, cause of death, hepatitis, or CPR. In multivariate analysis, donor age was a potent factor in being fit for heart donation and in actual heart transplantation. In a single center, 61 cases out of the initial 284 which started assessment of brain death actually donated their organs. From the non-transplanted 223 cases, 35 cases were due to the unwillingness of the families. Conclusion: The actually transplanted hearts are characterized by younger age, with no medical history, and those who have no abnormalities in echocardiograms, which are consistent with the findings of former studies in the Western countries. Minor abnormality of echocardiogram and history of hypertension in the donor leads to lower rate of actual transplantation. Recipient willingness might also be a crucial factor in failed transplantation. The efforts to utilize transplantable hearts in marginal donors are still small, attributing to the standstill of heart transplantation in Korea. Key word: Heart transplantation, donor, Korea