Evaluation of the porcine ameroid constrictor model of myocardial ischemia for therapeutic angiogenesis studies.

The porcine ameroid model of chronic myocardial ischemia has been widely used for the evaluation of coronary collateralization development. The impact of target vessel occlusion on the presence of myocardial ischemia, and the relationship between morphological, functional, and hemodynamic measurements in the context of therapeutic angiogenesis studies, however, has not been studied thus far. The authors therefore performed a systematic analysis of 94 animals undergoing ameroid constrictor placement around the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX) and, furthermore, a comprehensive evaluation including echocardiography and coronary angiography 26 +/- 1 (mean +/- SEM) days after ameroid placement.