[High energy phosphates and mitochondrial respiratory function after 24 hours cardiac preservation--comparison...

Cardiac preservation is one of the most important step during heart transplantation. Prolonged preservation period is necessary to get the greater donor pool. To get safe prolonged preservation two methods, simple hypothermic immersion method (group A) and continuous hypothermic perfusion method (group B), were compared in this report by evaluating the myocardiac high energy phosphate level and mitochondrial respiratory function. The values of ATP, TAN and Energy charge were significantly higher in group B than group A (p less than 0.001). Mitochondrial respiratory function such as state 3 QO2, state 4 QO2, RCI and ADP/O also showed significantly higher values in group B than group A (p less than 0.001). These date indicate that continuous hypothermic perfusion method provides better preservation than simple hypothermic immersion method for 24 hours cardiac preservation.