Rapid Communication: A comparison of cardiac lesions and heart weights from market pigs that did and did not die during transport to one Ontario abattoir1

Zurbrigg, Kathy; Dreumel, Tony van; Rothschild, Max F.; Alves, David; Friendship, Robert; O’Sullivan, Terri L.

doi:10.1093/tas/txy124

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…Our necropsy results showed that the LV mass/THW ratio was 0.62. Similar findings were published by Zurbrigg et al 23 : LV mass/THW ratios ranged from 0.62 to 0.66 in 396 hearts from slaughtered pigs.…”

Section: Predicting Heart Size For Xenotransplantation Experimentssupporting

confidence: 90%

Transthoracic echocardiography is a simple tool for size matching in cardiac xenotransplantation

Mokelke,

Bender,

Reichart

et al. 2024

Xenotransplantation

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BackgroundPreoperative size matching is essential for both allogeneic and xenogeneic heart transplantation. In preclinical pig‐to‐baboon xenotransplantation experiments, porcine donor organs are usually matched to recipients by using indirect parameters, such as age and total body weight. For clinical use of xenotransplantation, a more precise method of size measurement would be desirable to guarantee a “perfect match.” Here, we investigated the use of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and described a new method to estimate organ size prior to xenotransplantation.MethodsHearts from n = 17 genetically modified piglets were analyzed by TTE and total heart weight (THW) was measured prior to xenotransplantation into baboons between March 2018 and April 2022. Left ventricular (LV) mass was calculated according to the previously published method by Devereux et al. and a newly adapted formula. Hearts from n = 5 sibling piglets served as controls for the determination of relative LV and right ventricular (RV) mass. After explantation, THW and LV and RV mass were measured.ResultsTHW correlated significantly with donor age and total body weight. The strongest correlation was found between THW and LV mass calculated by TTE. Compared to necropsy data of the control piglets, the Devereux formula underestimated both absolute and relative LV mass, whereas the adapted formula yielded better results. Combining the adapted formula and the relative LV mass data, THW can be predicted with TTE.ConclusionsWe demonstrate reliable LV mass estimation by TTE for size matching prior to xenotransplantation. An adapted formula provides more accurate results of LV mass estimation than the generally used Devereux formula in the xenotransplantation setting. TTE measurement of LV mass is superior for the prediction of porcine heart sizes compared to conventional parameters such as age and total body weight.

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Section: Predicting Heart Size For Xenotransplantation Experimentssupporting

confidence: 90%

Transthoracic echocardiography is a simple tool for size matching in cardiac xenotransplantation

Mokelke,

Bender,

Reichart

et al. 2024

Xenotransplantation

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“…It should also be mentioned that the outer heart volume could e.g. potentially be influenced by hypertrophy of ventricular walls and dilatation of ventricular chambers, which is reported to be common in finisher pigs in Canada 6 . Whether such lesions exist among purebred nucleus pigs, is questionable, but compensatory remodelling could potentially give a deviating relationship between heart and body size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…quantifying the capacity of the heart and lungs. Previous studies 2 , 6 show that heart lesions and abnormalities, like hypertrophy of the ventricular walls are quite common in finishers and growing pigs, even in animals that seem healthy 6 . More specifically, van Essen et al 2 observed that some traits describing the circulatory capacity, like cardiac output and stroke volume in pigs did not scale proportionally with body weight (BW) according to the allometric scaling laws.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Pig breeders have selected pigs for traits like feed efficiency, backfat thickness and daily gain for several decades. It has been debated how this has affected the size of visceral organs 1 – 5 , and whether the organs have been developing accordingly, to cope with stressors and disease 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, since the circulatory and respiratory systems seem to play important roles for sudden deaths, both among finishers 6 , 12 and sows 8 , 13 , one strategy could be to develop indicator traits, e.g. quantifying the capacity of the heart and lungs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A high-throughput study of visceral organs in CT-scanned pigs

Nordbø

Sagevik

Kongsro

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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It has been debated whether intensive selection for growth and carcass yield in pig breeding programmes can affect the size of internal organs, and thereby reduce the animal’s ability to handle stress and increase the risk of sudden deaths. To explore the respiratory and circulatory system in pigs, a deep learning based computational pipeline was built to extract the size of lungs and hearts from CT-scan images. This pipeline was applied on CT images from 11,000 boar selection candidates acquired during the last decade. Further, heart and lung volumes were analysed genetically and correlated with production traits. Both heart and lung volumes were heritable, with h2 estimated to 0.35 and 0.34, respectively, in Landrace, and 0.28 and 0.4 in Duroc. Both volumes were positively correlated with lean meat percentage, and lung volume was negatively genetically correlated with growth (rg = − 0.48 ± 0.07 for Landrace and rg = − 0.44 ± 0.07 for Duroc). The main findings suggest that the current pig breeding programs could, as an indirect response to selection, affect the size of hearts- and lungs. The presented methods can be used to monitor the development of internal organs in the future.

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Peculiarities of macro- and cytometric assessment of morphological structures of the domestic pig heart

Horalskyi,

Ragulya,

Kolesnik

et al. 2024

Regul. Mech. Biosyst.

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The cardiovascular system, which includes the heart, is one of the essential systems of the human and animal body. With its participation, the blood supply of the organs takes place; it promotes the outflow of lymph from the organs and its transport into the veins, and it helps to implement the functions of the organs of immune protection, endocrine, and nervous systems. The work aims to conduct a macro-, histo-, and cytomorphometric assessment of the morphological structures of the heart of the domestic pig using complex research methods (macroscopic, histological, morphometric). Functionally mature, clinically healthy animals (n = 7) of Sus scrofa f. domestica were used for the work. According to organometallic studies, the absolute weight of a pig's heart is 487.4 ± 8.12 g; the relative weight is 0.290 ± 0.004%, and the net weight of the heart is 461.4 ± 8.0 g. According to its linear dimensions, a domestic pig's heart is elongated-narrowed (conical) type, as evidenced by the heart development index of 155.1 ± 6.3%. According to the functional load of the muscle tissues of the myocardium of the heart and its separate morphological structures (ventricles and atria) when performing particular work during spontaneous rhythmic contractions, the absolute mass of the ventricles and atria is different. The enormous mass is characteristic of the left ventricle, then the right, and the smallest for the left and right atria. Therefore, the ventricles of the heart are more functionally developed, as evidenced by the ratio coefficient (1:0.79) of the mass of the ventricles to the net mass of the heart, respectively, the ratio coefficient (1:0.21) of the mass of the atria to the net mass of the heart and the ratio coefficient (1:0.27) atrial mass to ventricular mass. Cardiomyocytes of the left ventricle have the most significant volume, cardiomyocytes of the right ventricle have a smaller volume, and cardiomyocytes of the atria have the smallest volume. Their nuclear volumes have similar values, respectively, in the left ventricle – 77.16 ± 2.01 μm3, the right ventricle – 76.02 ± 2.43 μm3, and the atrium – 75.97 ± 3.24 μm3, and the nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio is different from them: the smallest nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio, respectively characteristic of cardiomyocytes of the left ventricle, significantly more for cardiomyocytes of the right ventricle and significantly the most for cardiomyocytes of the atria. The scientific results of morphoarchitectonics, organo-, histo-, and cytometry of the heart of the domestic pig presented in the publication supplement the information on the morphological structure of the heart of domestic animals in the relevant sections of histology, comparative anatomy and are a significant contribution to clinical cardiology.

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Rapid Communication: A comparison of cardiac lesions and heart weights from market pigs that did and did not die during transport to one Ontario abattoir1

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Transthoracic echocardiography is a simple tool for size matching in cardiac xenotransplantation

Transthoracic echocardiography is a simple tool for size matching in cardiac xenotransplantation

A high-throughput study of visceral organs in CT-scanned pigs

Peculiarities of macro- and cytometric assessment of morphological structures of the domestic pig heart

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