Myocardial cooling for reperfusion injury protection achieved by organ specific hypothermic autologous perfusion.
OBJECTIVE
Whole body hypothermia has been suggested to reduce myocardial injury in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Because of the large human thermal mass, induction of generalized hypothermia is slow and the technique has encountered considerable side effects. The aim was to develop and validate a method for regional cooling during myocardial reperfusion using hypothermic autologous blood.


METHODS
In a myocardial ischemia-reperfusion pig model (n = 10), arterial blood was cooled in a closed circuit, and returned to the myocardium during reperfusion either through a perfusion catheter or through the guiding catheter. Myocardial temperatures were recorded using temperature electrodes.


RESULTS
Stabile regional myocardial cooling was induced without complications within 4 min. Both flow rate and blood temperature had significant impact on temperature in the reperfused myocardium but did not influence systemic temperature.


CONCLUSIONS
A method for organ specific hypothermic autologous arterial blood reperfusion has been developed and validated. The method is a simple and much faster alternative to systemic cooling and may have the potential to reduce myocardial injury in patients with acute myocardial infarction.
Maeng
Michael
M
Department of Cardiology B, Skejby Sygehus, Aarhus University Hospital, Institute of Experimental Clinical Research, Aarhus University, Denmark. michael.maeng@iekf.au.dk
Kristiansen
Steen Buus
SB
Mortensen
Ulrik Markus
UM
Andersen
Henning Rud
HR
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001804:Blood Transfusion, Autologous; D001831:Body Temperature; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D006339:Heart Rate; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced / Q000379:methods*; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009206:Myocardium; D013552:Swine