Effect of Myocardial Postconditioning with Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids on the Hemodynamics of Reanimated Swine Hearts

Even a small to moderate degree of global cardiac ischemia during a cardiac procedure or surgery can significantly contribute to a patient’s postoperative morbidity and mortality. While various ischemic damage mitigation strategies have been implemented, the efficacy of the intravenous administration of polyunsaturated fatty acids has not been extensively studied. This research evaluates the impact of myocardial pharmacological postconditioning via intravenous infusion of lipid emulsions on the hemodynamic performance during global cardiac ischemia using Visible Heart® Methodologies: swine hearts reanimated ex-vivo and maintained with an acellular perfusate saturated with oxygen. Intravascular postconditioning with omega 3/omega 6 fatty acid improved cardiac performance metrics during global ischemia in reanimated swine hearts. These findings suggest that further investigation into the protective effects of PUFAs is warranted. Due to the use of a Krebs-Henseleit physiological buffer solution for the isolated heart models, any effect seen in these experiments would be independent of blood components (e.g. lymphocyte-mediated effects) and most likely a direct effect on the cardiac myocytes.