Myocardial glucose metabolism and ATP levels are decreased two days after global ischemia.

We hypothesized that following reversible myocardial ischemia recovery of glucose metabolism would be prolonged and would parallel recovery of high energy phosphate levels. Normothermic ischemia was achieved in dogs by aortic cross-clamping for 20 min on cardiopulmonary bypass. Glucose uptake was determined by [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and positron emission tomography (PET) 1 week pre-ischemia and at 2 and 7 days post-ischemia (n = 8).

Cardiopulmonary support mitigates the effects of experimental myocardial ischemia.

The effectiveness of cardiopulmonary support (CPS) as a rescue method following failed angioplasty is unknown. The proximal left anterior descending (LAD) was occluded for 20 min in 21 dogs. Group 1 animals (n=15) were given CPS and group 2 animals (n=6) served as controls.

Prospective, randomized trial of autotransfusion after routine cardiac operations.

To study the effectiveness of autotransfusion of shed mediastinal blood in decreasing the need for homologous blood transfusion in the routine cardiac surgical patient, we prospectively randomized 35 consecutive patients into two groups. The experimental group (n = 18) received autotransfusion for 12 hours after completion of the operative procedure. The control group (n = 17) was treated with standard chest drainage and fluid replacement.