Fact check

The Brigham and Women’s Hospital Pathology Tissue Bank annual report, a NIH grant application, a House subcommittee testimony, and a Boston Globe article all indicate that cardiac tissue has been collected and retained since the early 1970s, supporting the claim of decade‑long storage. However, an FDA inspection report claims no cardiac samples older than ten years were present at the time of review, suggesting either a limited scope of inspection or a discrepancy in record‑keeping. The preponderance of evidence favors the claim, but the contradictory FDA finding prevents a fully definitive verification.

The FDA report may pertain only to a specific subset of the repository (e.g., samples meeting regulatory criteria) rather than the entire historical archive referenced in other documents. Self‑reported data from the hospital and grant applications could be biased, while the Boston Globe article provides independent corroboration. The claim is about "decades" of storage, which is supported by sources citing specimens from the 1970s onward.