Heart preservation with celsior solution improved by the addition of nitroglycerine

Background Preservation of rat hearts was extended to 16 hr when nitroglyce rine (NTG) was added to colloid-free University of Wisconsin solution (MUW) . This study examined the effectiveness of Celsior solution (CEL) and wheth er adding NTG to CEL would improve and extend cardiac preservation. Methods. Two studies were conducted: (a) 9-hr preservation with either CEL or MUW, (b) 16-hr preservation with GEL, CEL+NTG, or MUW+NTG. Rat heart iso grafts were flushed and stored at 0 degreesC before heterotopic transplanta tion with an indwelling externalized intraventricular balloon-tipped cathet er, One and 7 days after transplantation, quantitative functional studies w ere performed. Results. After 9-hr preservation, all (6/6) grafts preserved with MUW beat for 7 days, whereas only 1/6 hearts preserved with CEL continued to beat. A fter 16-hr preservation, 6/10 CEL+NTG hearts beat for 7 days compared with 7/8 MUW NTG hearts; none of the hearts preserved with CEL survived. Functio n was similar in CEL+NTG and MUW+NTG groups on day 1 (left ventricular deve loped pressure (LVDP): CEL+NTG=64 +/- 16, MUW+NTG=104 +/- 16 mmHg; maximum dP/dt: CEL+ NTG=2024 +/- 551, MUW+NTG=3582 +/- 513 mmHg/sec) and day 7: (LV DP: CEL+NTG=126 +/- 25, MUW+NTG=177 +/- 24 mmHg, maximum dP/dt: CEL+NTG=383 5 +/- 848, MUW+ NTG=5639 +/- 670 mmHg/sec). Function in both groups improve d significantly (P <0.05) on day 7 compared with day 1. Conclusions. Celsior was not as effective as MUW for rat heart preservation . The addition of NTG to both CEL and MUW provided similar effective preser vation for 16 hr. NTG should be added routinely to both solutions.