Abstract
During aortic cross-clamping, the myocardium suffers from global ischemia, which is
followed by reperfusion after declamping. The generation of free oxygen radicals increases
during reperfusion, resulting in arrhythmias and impaired cardiac function. This study
was conducted to evaluate the effect of a novel antioxidant nitecapone (NC) on cardiac
reperfusion injuryin vivo. Twelve pigs were anesthetized and after sternotomy the aorta and the right atrium
were cannulated for cardiopulmonary bypass. The heart was arrested with either +4°C
crystalloid cardioplegia alone in the control group (n = 6) or cardioplegia with NC
(50 μM) added in the NC group (n = 6). Cardioplegia was added every 20 minutes. After
1 hour of aortic crossclamping, blood samples for oxidative stress analysis were taken,
and hemodynamic profile surveillance continued for 90 minutes. Heart rate (p = 0.04) and left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) (p = 0.04) were significantly lower in the NC group than in the C group after aortic
declamping. Cardiac output and myocardial contractility (dP/dtmax) were also enhanced in the group receiving NC, but the difference was not statistically
significant. At 30 minutes after reperfusion, the coronary production (coronary sinus-aorta)
of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances correlated inversely with cardiac output
(r=−0.90,p = 0.001) and stroke volume (r=−0.82,p = 0.007). The effect of NC on lipid peroxidation seems to be modest and therefore
the target of NC is unclear. NC would appear, however, to be a beneficial additive
in the crystalloid cardioplegia in terms of functional recovery.
