Physiological adaptation to a nonpulsatile biventricular assist system.
Physiological adaptation of the recipient to a nonpulsatile biventricular assist system (NPBVAS) is not well understood. The aim of this study is to evaluate the physiological adaptation of experimental animals after NPBVAS implantation. Since May 2001, four long-term NPBVAS implant experiments in calves were performed. The blood gas and hemodynamic data were analyzed retrospectively. An additional prospective experiment was performed to confirm retrospective findings. All calves (n = 5) lived longer than 5 weeks without complication. In retrospective analysis, there was not a correlation between the O2 content and total blood flow in the pulmonary artery during the 1st postoperative week, but they began to correlate within the 2nd postoperative week. Then, there was a strong correlation after the 3rd postoperative week (r = 0.753). In the prospective experiment, O2 content related to total pulmonary flow after 2 weeks (r = 0.732) was the same as in the retrospective study. Most of the hemodynamic parameters studied became normalized after 14 days. In addition, easier controllability of the blood pumps was demonstrated after the 2nd postoperative week in all five experiments. Experimental results suggested that the native healthy heart accepted NPBVAS by reducing its cardiac output in 2 weeks. In addition, complicated control of the BPVAS was not necessary after 2 weeks of implantation. These results demonstrate the possibility of physiological adaptation to the NPBVAS being established within 2 postoperative weeks.
Murai
Noriyuki
N
Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Artificial Organs Research Laboratory, Houston, Texas, USA.
Ichikawa
Seiji
S
Watanabe
Kuniyoshi
K
Shinohara
Toshiyuki
T
Glueck
Julia
J
Motomura
Tadashi
T
Ishitoya
Hiroshi
H
Ashizawa
Satoshi
S
Matsui
Takahiro
T
Sumikura
Hirohito
H
Ichihashi
Fumiyuki
F
Nosé
Yukihiko
Y
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001775:Blood Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D002417:Cattle; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood
D010100:Oxygen