Perioperative anaesthesia by local infiltration following median sternotomy - a study protocol.

Introduction: Post-operative pain following open heart surgery is a clinical challenge usually requiring significant amounts of opioids. Long-acting local infiltration anaesthesia may effectively reduce post-operative opioid consumption and improve recovery. The trial is a publicly funded, double-blinded, randomised, placebo-controlled trial evaluating the effect of long-acting local infiltration anaesthesia in open heart surgery.

In Vivo Wireless Monitoring System of Cardiovascular Force Data.

Biotelemetry provides the possibility to measure physiological data in awake, free-ranging animals without the effects of anesthesia and repeated surgery. In this project a fully implantable, telemetric system to measure biomechanical force data of the moving structures of the heart along with the ECG of experimental animals was developed. The system is based on a microcontroller with a built in bidirectional radio frequency transceiver, which allows for the implant to both receive and send data wirelessly.

Retrograde lung perfusion in the treatment of massive pulmonary embolism. A randomised porcine study.

Introduction: The treatment of massive pulmonary embolisms with an associated cardiac arrest is controversial; however, surgical thrombectomy with extracorporeal circulation (ECC) is an option for treatment. It is difficult to remove all thromboembolic material. Theoretically, retrograde blood perfusion through the lungs may be beneficial.

Imaging of carotid artery vessel wall edema using T2-weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

Background: Atherothrombosis remains a major health problem in the western world, and carotid atherosclerosis is an important contributor to embolic ischemic strokes. It remains a clinical challenge to identify rupture-prone atherosclerotic plaques before clinical events occur. Inflammation, endothelial injury and angiogenesis are features of vulnerable plaques and may all be associated with plaque edema.

External approach to in vivo force measurement on mitral valve traction suture.

Background: Force measurements on the mitral valve apparatus have been reported from in vivo and in vitro studies. Recent reparative techniques for ischemic mitral valve insufficiency call for papillary muscle relocation. This study describes a device to measure forces generated on traction sutures utilized for this purpose.

Recellularization of aortic valves in pigs.

Objectives: Decellularized porcine heart valves treated with deoxycholic acid (DOA) have demonstrated complete recellularization and absence of calcification when implanted into the pulmonary position in sheep. We studied recellularization and calcification in stented DOA-treated heart valves compared with conventional stented glutaraldehyde-treated valves in the aortic position in juvenile pigs 6 months after implantation.

Methods: DOA heart valves (n=12) and glutaraldehyde-treated valves (Carpentier-Edwards) (n=15) were implanted into the aortic position in 8-month old 90 kg female pigs.