Preliminary study of rabbit experiment modality for evaluating cardiac fatigue / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a preliminary study of rabbit experiment modality incorporating a new indicator for evaluating cardiac function changes, providing a basis for subsequent study of cardiac fatigue. Using only biochemical indicators, such as troponins, is difficult to make a distinction between exercise-induced cardiac fatigue (EICF) and exercise-induced cardiac damage (EICD). Therefore, some new indicators are needed to evaluate cardiac fatigue synthetically. In our study, we used New Zealand white rabbits to conduct a multi-step swimming experiments with load. We made the rabbits reach an exhaustive state to evaluate whether the amplitude ratio of the first to second heart sound (S1/S2) and heart rate (HR) during the exhaustive exercise would be decreased and whether they would be able to recover after the exhaustive exercise for 24 hours. During the first phase of swimming, S1/S2 and HR were increased, and then decreased at exhaustive state. They were recovered after the exhaustive exercise for 24 hours. Overloading led to deaths of three rabbis, and new phenomena from overloading and related to this kind of death were observed. The experiments proved that Multi-steps swimming experiments with loads by using New Zealand white rabbit is useful for studying cardiac fatigue and premonition of sudden cardiac death.