title: Surgical porcine myocardial infarction model through permanent coronary occlusion.
abstract: Using domestic pigs as an animal model, we here validated a reproducible and standardized myocardial infarction (MI) surgical model, to achieve the largest possible infarct extent with the lowest morbidity and mortality. To this end, we included several anesthetic and perisurgical precautions  to minimize surgical complications. Mortality and morbidity rates were compared among groups of pigs that underwent permanent occlusion at different locations of either the left circumflex or left anterior descending artery. In addition, to compare the resulting MI between groups, data were  collected by using cardiac biomarkers (including troponin I), electrocardiography, and echocardiography. These data were correlated to the final mean infarct size calculated by microscopic studies. Proximal occlusions lead to high mortality rates, whereas distal occlusions induced rather small  MI areas. The optimal occlusion site in terms of morbidity, mortality, and lesion extent was the midpoint of the left anterior descending artery. In this group, only one pig died, and group cardiac data showed a rise in biomarker levels, marked left ventricular dysfunction on electrocardiography  and echocardiography, and well-defined transmural MI in both ventricles. Infarct size quantitated through histologic studies revealed an average 15% ventricular lesion. Because interanimal variability in results from this group was negligible, we consider that the induced myocardial injury  of this model is reliable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. mariarod@icbas.up.pt
authors.forename: Maria R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Munz
authors.forename: Miguel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Faria
authors.forename: Joana R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.forename: Artur P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Aguas
authors.forename: Mário J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Amorim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D054059:Coronary Occlusion / Q000601:surgery*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006652:Histological Techniques; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D009211:Myoglobin / Q000097:blood; D034421:Sus scrofa; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D009211:Myoglobin