Sympathetic denervation of heart and kidney induces similar effects on ventricular electrophysiological properties

AIMS: We aimed to investigate whether sympathetic denervation of the heart and kidney had similar effects on ventricular effective refractory period (ERP) and action potential duration (APD) restitution properties in a canine model. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-four anaesthetised open-chest dogs (17-20 kg) were assigned to a sham operation group (n=8), a cardiac sympathetic denervation group (CSD, n=8) or a renal sympathetic denervation group (RSD, n=8). CSD was performed by ablating the caudal half of the LSG and T2-T4 thoracic sympathetic ganglia, while RSD was performed by ablating four sites on the adventitial surface of each renal artery. The ventricular electrophysiological properties were determined at four time points: baseline, 0 min, 30 min, and 60 min after interventions. The results showed that, when compared to the control group at the time point of 60 min after interventions, both CSD and RSD significantly reduced heart rate, prolonged the QT interval and ventricular ERP and APD, decreased the ERP dispersion and the slopes of APD restitution curves, and suppressed the APD alternans without affecting blood pressure and corrected QT interval. However, there were no significant differences in these parameters between CSD and RSD groups at the same time point. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that sympathetic denervation of the heart and kidney induced similar electrophysiological effects in ventricles.