The impact of a modified anaesthetic protocol on animal survival and the characteristics of ventricular arrhythmias in the course of acute myocardial infarction in a domestic pig model

Abstract

Introduction Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most common causes of death in humans in highly developed countries. Among its most frequent complications affecting the patient’s prognosis are cardiac arrhythmias: ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF). Material and Methods The study aimed to characterise arrhythmias in 19 pigs subjected to experimentally induced MI obtained by occlusion of the proximal left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery using an angioplasty balloon. The anaesthetic protocol was modified to reduce mortality by including procedures stabilising haemodynamic disorders which develop during episodes of ischaemia and arrhythmia. During 30 min of experimentally induced ischaemia, the heart rhythm was recorded using a 12-lead ECG. The time, frequency, and type of arrhythmias were analysed. Results Ventricular arrhythmias were found in 94.74% of the treated pigs. The most common were ventricular premature complexes, reported in 88.89% of pigs with arrhythmia. Ventricular tachycardia was recorded in 66.67% and ventricular fibrillation in 50% of pigs with arrhythmias. Conclusion Myocardial infarction due to proximal LAD occlusion is characterised by a high incidence of ventricular arrhythmias, especially VT and VF. Because of the high survival rate, this MI porcine model may serve as a model for research on acute ischaemic ventricular arrhythmias in humans. Additionally, it reduces the total number of animals required for testing while yielding meaningful results, which is in line with the 3R principle.

CaMKII inhibition has dual effects on spontaneous Ca2+ release and Ca2+ alternans in ventricular cardiomyocytes from mice with a gain-of-function RyR2 mutation

“…The animals were therefore allowed a recovery period of at least five days before the initiation of experiments. Similarly in pigs, drugs used during the experimental protocol may affect arrhythmogenesis (160)(161)(162)(163). This has been shown to be the case for Propofol, which in previous studies reduced the prevalence of reperfusion-induced arrhythmias, particularly episodes of VT (164).…”

A canine acute coronary occlusion model using thrombus implantation by percutaneous coronary intervention

“…Various acute coronary occlusion models have been used in experimental studies of myocardial infarction pathophysiology and drug intervention, laying an important technical foundation for the exploration of coronary heart disease treatments [3,4]. Dogs and miniature pigs are widely used to study acute myocardial infarction because of the similarity of their circulatory systems, tissue structure, and coronary artery distributions to human hearts.…”