Doctoral Degrees (Emergency Medicine)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Emergency Medicine) by browse.metadata.advisor "Coetzee, A. (Andre)"

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    The role of calcium and calcium antagonists in the reperfusion injury of the heart
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005) Conradie, Suzanne Louise; Coetzee, A. (Andre); Moolman, J. (Johan); Coetzee, J. (Johan); Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. Emergency Medicine.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The reperfusion injury after myocardial ischemia is relevant in the clinical setting, after cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery, after PTCA and stenting and after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The components of the reperfusion injury considered in this study were myocardial stunning and reperfusion arrhythmias. Calcium antagonists have been shown to be beneficial in attenuating the myocardial reperfusion injury in the in vitro and in vivo laboratory setting (Lamping, Gross 1985, Przyklenk and Kloner 1988, Taylor 1990, Ehring 1992, Gross and Piper 1992). However systemic administration of a dose of calcium antagonist, large enough to attenuate the myocardial reperfusion injury in the clinical setting, would inevitably lead to unwanted systemic side effects of the drug. The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that an adequate dose of verapamil administered timeously, directly into the ischemic myocardium, would attenuate the reperfusion injury, either when administered from the onset of ischemia, or from 3 minutes before reperfusion. The anesthetized open chest porcine model of myocardial ischemia (15 min total LAD occlusion) and reperfusion was employed in this study. A low dose of verapamil (0.5 mg/8mt or 0.0625mg/mt), a high dose of verapamil (2mg/8m or O.25mg/ml), or vehicle (saline) (8ml) was infused over 8 minutes, directly into the LAD coronary artery supplying the ischemic segment. The infusion was started either at the onset of ischemia, or from 3 minutes before reperfusion. The time taken for the various parameters to return to pre ischemic values was compared between the different groups. The results showed that the high dose of verapamil (2mg) attenuated the reperfusion injury both when administered from the onset of ischemia, and when administered from 3 minutes before reperfusion, compared to either the low dose of verapamil, or the saline infusions. The high dose of verapamil groups had a faster recovery of both systolic contractile function and diastolic function and a lower incidence of ventricular fibrillation on reperfusion. There were no systemic effects of verapamil infusion in any of the groups. The clinical setting of cardiac surgery expressly lends itself to the clinical application of this finding. There is direct access to the coronary arteries both before ischemia and before reperfusion. A small dose of calcium channel blocking drug, with no systemic effect can be administered into the aortic root at the onset of ischemia, just prior to cardioplegia (when the heart is still warm), and after rewarming a few minutes prior to removal of the aortic cross clamp.