Ischemia-reperfusion increases transfection efficiency of intracoronary adenovirus type 5 in pig heart in situ.

Efficiency of intracoronary (IC) adenoviral vector transfection is impaired by the vascular endothelium. Ischemia and substances that increase vascular permeability (sodium nitroprusside, nitroglycerin) may augment adenoviral vector transfection efficiency (TE). We tested whether TE of adenoviral vector following IC infusion is improved by nitrates or by ischemia.

Adhesive epicardial corticosteroids prevent postoperative atrial fibrillation.

Background: Postoperative atrial fibrillation remains a common cause of morbidity. Although epicardial drug delivery can increase efficacy and reduce side effects, it is impractical for postoperative atrial fibrillation because pericardial bleeding/effusion and drainage cause rapid drug elimination. Fibrin glue sprayed on the epicardium is vigorously adherent, allowing an admixed drug to remain in contact with the heart.

Intravenous infusion of mesenchymal stem cells enhances regional perfusion and improves ventricular function in a porcine model of myocardial infarction.

Transplantation of stem cells may improve regional perfusion and post-infarct ventricular function, but the optimal dose and efficacy of cell delivery via the intravenous route has not been determined. This study tested the hypothesis that intravenous infusion of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) enhances regional perfusion and improves ventricular function after myocardial infarction. In a closed-chest pig model, the LAD coronary artery was occluded for 75 min by angioplasty balloon inflation followed by 12 weeks of reperfusion.

Speckle-tracking strain echocardiography for detecting cardiac dyssynchrony in a canine model of dyssynchrony and heart failure.

Multiple echocardiographic criteria have been proposed to diagnose mechanical dyssynchrony in patients with heart failure without being validated against a model of cardiac dyssynchrony with heart failure. This study examines which of these methods can detect dyssynchrony in a canine model. Adult mongrel dogs underwent His-bundle ablation and right-ventricular pacing for 4 wk at either 110 bpm to induce dyssynchrony without heart failure (D group, n = 12) or 170 bpm to induce dyssynchrony with heart failure (DHF group, n = 9).

Effects of single-site versus biventricular epicardial pacing on myocardial performance in an immature animal model of atrioventricular block.

Introduction: Single-site ventricular pacing results in dyssynchronous ventricular activation and may contribute to ventricular dysfunction. We evaluated epicardial biventricular (BiV) pacing as a means of maintaining synchronous ventricular activation in an acute piglet model of AV block with normal ventricular anatomy and function.

Methods And Results: We used left ventricular (LV) impedance catheters and tissue Doppler imaging to assess the cardiodynamics of immature piglets (n = 6, 33-78 days, 9.