Lymphatic drainage of the heart in the laboratory rat

We showed in the Sprague Dawley rat that the principal ascending cardiac ly mphatic is similar in location to that of man and dog and can be readily vi sualized by injection of a small amount of T1824 blue dye (Evans) into the apex of the left ventricle. We also showed that it is possible to ligate an d thereby obstruct this principal cardiac lymphatic near its entry beneath the left atrial appendage. This latter technique may be useful for studying in a small relatively inexpensive laboratory animal the effects of blockin g cardiac lymph drainage on inflammatory and infectious processes implicate d in myocardial and coronary artery disease.