title: Mechanisms of oxidative stress and myocardial protection during open-heart surgery.
abstract: Cold heart protection via cardioplegia administration, limits the amount of oxygen demand. Systemic normothermia with warm cardioplegia was introduced due to the abundance of detrimental effects of hypothermia. A temperature of 32-33°C in combination with tepid blood cardioplegia of the same temperature appears to be protective enough for both; heart and brain. Reduction of nitric oxide (NO) concentration is in part responsible for myocardial injury after the cardioplegic cardiac arrest. Restoration of NO balance with exogenous NO supplementation has been shown useful to prevent inflammation and apoptosis. In this article, we discuss the "deleterious" effects of the oxidative stress of the extracorporeal circulation and the up-to-date theories of "ideal'' myocardial protection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, "Evangelismos'' General Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Nikolaos G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Baikoussis
authors.forename: Nikolaos A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Papakonstantinou
authors.forename: Chrysoula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verra
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kakouris
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chounti
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hountis
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dedeilias
authors.forename: Michalis
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Argiriou
mesh_terms: D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016166:Free Radical Scavengers / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006324:Heart Arrest, Induced / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016166:Free Radical Scavengers; D009569:Nitric Oxide