Pharmacologic cerebral capillary blood flow improvement after deep hypothermic circulatory arrest: an intravital fluorescence microscopy study in pigs.

Background: Despite meticulous investigation of bypass techniques for deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, unfavorable long-term neurologic deficits have been well documented. Our aim was to improve brain perfusion by reducing platelet plugging with a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor (eptifibatide) in an experimental model of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest-reperfusion in pigs.

Methods: Two groups of 12 piglets each (eptifibatide group [eptifibatide + unfractionated heparin] vs UFH group [only unfractionated heparin]) underwent 10 minutes of normothermic bypass, 40 minutes of cooling during cardiopulmonary bypass (hematocrit, 30%; cardiopulmonary bypass flow, 100 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1)), 60 minutes of circulatory arrest at 15 degrees C, and a 40-minute rewarming period.

Ablation of Ca(v)2.3 / E-type voltage-gated calcium channel results in cardiac arrhythmia and altered autonomic control within the murine cardiovascular system.

Voltage-gated calcium channels are key components in cardiac electrophysiology. We demonstrate that Ca(v)2.3 is expressed in mouse and human heart and that mice lacking the Ca(v)2.

Initial experience with a new right ventricular support device for beating heart surgery.

Objective: Device supported beating heart surgery has been advocated to extend patient selection criteria for off-pump surgery. This article reports the initial experimental and clinical results with a novel paracardial right ventricular support device.

Methods: Preclinical experiments were performed in two pigs.