Diabetes mellitus (DM) and the resulting hyperglycaemia may interfere with the cardioprotective effect of ischaemic late preconditioning (LPC). Therefore, we investigated the effect of acute hyperglycaemia (part 1) and the effect of alloxan-induced DM with or without short-term insulin treatment (part 2) on LPC. Rabbits, chronically instrumented with a coronary artery occluder, were subjected to 30 min coronary artery occlusion and 2 h reperfusion (I/R) and infarct size (IS) was assessed. In part 1, four groups were studied. Controls were not treated further. LPC induced by a 5-min period of myocardial ischaemia 24 h before I/R reduced IS from 42+/-14 (controls) to 22+/-8% of the area at risk. Hyperglycaemia (600 mg dl(-1) by dextrose infusion, H(600)) before and during the 30 min ischaemia tended to increase IS (57+/-16%, P=0.14 vs. controls) and blocked cardioprotection by LPC (H(600)+LPC, 59+/-19%, P=1.0 vs. H(600), P=0.0003 vs. LPC). In part 2, LPC reduced infarct size from 43+/-13% (control) to 23+/-10% ( P=0.003). In diabetic animals, IS was 39+/-11%, and cardioprotection by LPC could not be elicited (DM+LPC, 41+/-16%, P=0.02 vs. LPC). Short-term insulin treatment (I, 90 min before I/R, blood glucose <150 mg dl(-1)) did not restore the cardioprotective effects of LPC (DM+I, 42+/-15%; DM+LPC+I, 40+/-10%, P=0.03 vs. LPC). It is concluded that acute hyperglycaemia and DM block the cardioprotection induced by LPC in rabbits and that the cardioprotection is not restored by short-term insulin treatment.

We assessed the feasibility and safety of using local anaesthesia with conscious sedation as an alternative to general anaesthesia during complex and noncomplex cardiac implantable device procedures. We enrolled 279 consecutive patients who underwent cardiac device implantation/replacement at our tertiary/quaternary cardiac specialist hospital during a 17-month study period. Continuous combined intravenous conscious sedation with propofol and midazolam plus fentanyl and local anaesthesia were used for all procedures. Among the patients, 113, 59, 43, and 64 patients underwent pacemaker implantation, implantable cardiac defibrillator implantation, cardiac resynchronisation therapy device implantation, and generator exchange, respectively. The procedural success rate was 100%, with no apnoea or hypoxia episodes requiring therapeutic intervention. None of the patients required conversion to general anaesthesia. The mean surgical duration was longer for complex vs. noncomplex procedures (p = 0.003). The minimum mean arterial pressure during complex procedures was slightly lower than that during noncomplex procedures (p = 0.03). The perioperative (<24 h) mortality rate was 0%, and neither complexity group required tracheal intubation. Only two patients (0.7%) required unplanned intensive care unit admission for further surveillance. Our findings suggest that local anaesthesia with conscious sedation is a safe and feasible option for cardiac device implantation procedures, including complex procedures.

Desflurane-induced preconditioning does not depend on tyrosine kinase activation.