Cardiac function in a long-term follow-up study of moderate and severe porcine model of chronic myocardial infarction.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Novel therapies need to be evaluated in a relevant large animal model that mimics the clinical course and treatment in a reasonable time frame. To reliably assess therapeutic efficacy, knowledge regarding the translational model and the course of disease is needed. METHODS: Landrace pigs were subjected to a transient occlusion of the proximal left circumflex artery (LCx) (n = 6) or mid-left anterior descending artery (LAD) (n = 6) for 150 min. Cardiac function was evaluated before by 2D echocardiography or 3D echocardiography and pressure-volume loop analysis. At 12 weeks of follow-up the heart was excised for histological analysis and infarct size calculations. RESULTS: Directly following AMI, LVEF was severely reduced compared to baseline in the LAD group (-17.1 ± 1.6%, P = 0.009) compared to only a moderate reduction in the LCx group (-5.9 ± 1.5%, P = 0.02) and this effect remained unchanged during 12 weeks of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Two models of chronic MI, representative for different patient groups, can reproducibly be created through clinically relevant ischemia-reperfusion of the mid-LAD and proximal LCx.