Acute in vivo testing of a respiratory assist catheter: implants in calves versus sheep

A respiratory catheter that is inserted through a peripheral vein and placed within the vena cava is being developed for CO2 removal in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The catheter uses a rapidly pulsating balloon to enhance gas exchange. In this study, the CO2 removal performance of our catheter was assessed in acute sheep implants and compared with calf implants, primarily because sheep have cardiac outputs (CO) that are more comparable with human CO and lower than calves. Respiratory catheters (25 mL balloon, 0.17 m2) were inserted acutely in sheep (n = 2) and calves (n = 6) through the jugular vein and placed within the vena cava in two positions: spanning the right atrium (RA) and within the inferior vena cava (IVC). The postinsertion CO in the sheep ranged from 4.1 to 7.2 L/min compared with 6.2 to 15.5 L/min for the calves. The maximum CO2 removal rates (vCO2) were 297 ml/min/m2 (calf) and 282 ml/min/m2 (sheep) in the RA position and 240 ml/min/m2 (calf) and 248 ml/min/m2 (sheep) in the IVC position. The respective removal rates between animal models were not statistically different (p values > 0 .05 for all data sets). The dependence of the vCO2 on balloon pulsation was also not statistically different between the animal models.