MYOCARDIAL SALVAGE BY THE USE OF REPERFUSION AND INTRAAORTIC BALLOON PUMP - EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY

Background. Thrombolytic therapy improves left ventricular ejection fr action and survival. The study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of intraaortic balloon pump used in conjunction with reperfusion in re ducing infarct size. Methods. Twenty-two dogs were subjected to proxim al left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion. In group 1 (n = 7) occlusion lasted for 6 hours. In group 2 (n = 6)2 hours of occlusi on was followed by reperfusion. In group 3 (n = 9) after 2 hours of oc clusion the dogs were assisted with the intraaortic balloon pump throu ghout the 4 hours of reperfusion. At the end of 6 hours the infarcted myocardium of the left ventricle was determined and expressed as perce ntage of the myocardium at risk. Results. In group 1, the infarcted my ocardium was 79.3 +/- 9.9% of the myocardium at risk, in group 2, 59.0 +/- 19.9% (p < 0.05 versus group 1), and in group 3, 37.1 +/- 16.7% ( p < 0.001 versus group 1 and p < 0.05 versus group 2). Endocardial via bility ratio was increased by the intraaortic balloon pump; in group 1 it was 1.02 +/- 0.14, in group 2, 1.25 +/- 0.24, and in group 3, 1.47 +/- 0.31 (p < 0.001 versus group 1 and p < 0.02 versus group 2). Conc lusions. Reperfusion and intraaortic balloon pump increased salvage of the ischemic myocardium over that achieved by reperfusion alone in a canine occlusion-reperfusion model.