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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
Tachycardia-Induced Cardiomyopathy As a Chronic Heart Failure Model in Swine
Published on: February 17, 2018
A catheter based chronic porcine model of post-infarct dilated heart failure
Hans Kristian Brødløs1, Morten B Bramsen, Peter Agger
1Department of Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery T and the Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby, Denmark.
Objectives:
New surgical treatments for post-infarct antero-septal myocardial akinesia have been developed but evaluation of their mode of function is hampered by absence of suitable large animal heart failure models. We aimed to develop and evaluate a human compatible model for chronic post-infarct left ventricular (LV) remodeling.
Design:
Fourteen female 50 kg pigs underwent catheter-based coronary artery occlusion (one hour) distal to the first LAD diagonal. Eight weight- and age-matched healthy animals served as controls. LV geometry and function were assessed after 6 weeks with cardiovascular MRI.
Results:
All animals recovered from interventions. Three animals died during follow-up. All intervention animals had antero-septal akinetic infarcts (mean 26.5% of LV myocardium). Intervention animals had significantly increased end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes, and decreased stroke volume, ejection fraction and cardiac output. Detailed functional analysis showed significant systolic- and diastolic-dysfunction in intervention animals.
Conclusions:
We have established a feasible model of post-infarct LV remodeling, which accurately simulates human pathogenesis and pathophysiology. The model may be suitable for evaluation of novel surgical alleviations for heart failure.
