The type of suture material affects transverse aortic constriction-induced heart failure development in mice: a repeated measures correlation analysis

Figures

• 

  Figure 1. Effect of suture material and size on overall animal survival after TAC. (A) Separate Kaplan Meier plot including all 4 groups studied, 6-0 silk (light blue), 7-0 silk (dark blue), 6-0 prolene (light red), 7-0 prolene (dark red), for a followup period of 12 weeks after TAC. (B) Kaplan Meier plot comparing suture material (silk versus prolene) after pooling of 6-0 and 7-0 datasets. (C) Kaplan Meier plot comparing suture size (6-0 versus 7-0) after pooling of prolene and silk datasets. P-values were calculated using a log rank test.

• 

  Figure 2. Development of heart failure after TAC operation. Original echocardiographic images before and 12 weeks after TAC. (A) Short Axis View (SAX) of the left ventricle (left image) and line scan (right image) measuring wall thickness and heart volume during systole and diastole before TAC surgery (time point 0) and (B) 12 weeks post TAC surgery. (C) Aortic Arch View (AA; left image) and pulsewave doppler velocity measurement of the transverse aortic arch (in mm/s) before TAC surgery and (D) 12 weeks post TAC surgery.

• 

  Figure 3. Effect of suture material and size on the severity of TAC-induced cardiac phenotype. 2D-Plot of the percentile change of FS and LVmass of all operated mice, 6-0 silk (light blue), 7-0 silk (dark blue), 6-0 prolene (light red), 7-0 prolene (dark red), derived from echocardiographic measurements before and 4 weeks after TAC. The phenotype domains “healthy” (dark grey), “hypertrophy” (light grey), and “heart failure” (white) were defined by an increase of more than 30% in LVmass and a decrease by more than 10% in FS. Each data point reflects an individual animal with respective animal-ID provided. Box plots with median, 95 % percentile and min max values of percentile change of FS and LVmass is shown at the right and top, respectively.

• 

  Figure 4. Effect of suture material and size on the development of body weight after TAC. Development of animal body weight within a 12-week time period after TAC for mice operated using different suture material, silk (A) or prolene (B), or using different suture size, 6-0 (C) or 7-0 (D), dotted line indicates individual animal progression, straight line indicates the RMCA fit for each animal. (E) z-score statistic of the comparison of the RMCA slopes for the pooled data groups silk (silk 6-0 and silk 7-0) versus rolene (prolene 6-0 and prolene 7-0) in the first row and 6-0 (silk 6-0 and prolene 6-0) versus 7-0 (silk 7-0 and prolene 7-0) in the second row. Slope mean values ± SEM are given.

• 

  Figure 5. Effect of suture material and size on the development of fractional shortening after TAC. Development of animal FS within a 12-week time period after TAC for mice operated using different suture material, silk (A) or prolene (B), or using different suture size, 6-0 (C) or 7-0 (D), dotted line indicates individual animal progression, straight line indicates the RMCA fit for each animal. (E) z-score statistic of the comparison of the RMCA slopes for the pooled data groups.

• 

  Figure 6. Effect of suture material and size on the development of left ventricular mass after TAC. Development of animal LVmass within a 12-week time period after TAC for mice operated using different suture material, silk (A) or prolene (B), or using different suture size, 6-0 (C) or 7-0 (D), dotted line indicates individual animal progression, straight line indicates the RMCA fit for each animal. (E) z-score statistic of the comparison of the RMCA slopes for the pooled data groups.

• 

  Figure 7. Effect of suture material and size on the development of pressure gradient after TAC. Development of animal Δp within a 12-week time period after TAC for mice operated using different suture material, silk (A) or prolene (B), or using different suture size, 6-0 (C) or 7-0 (D), dotted line indicates individual animal progression, straight line indicates the RMCA fit for each animal. (E) z-score statistic of the comparison of the RMCA slopes for the pooled data groups.