"Pacing Bigeminal".

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Animal Models
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) research often utilizes rapid pacing-induced heart failure models.
• Traditional methods rely on specialized, commercially unavailable animal pacemakers.
• A need exists for accessible, high-frequency pacing techniques in animal models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel
• pacing bigeminal
• method for inducing heart failure in beagles.
• To compare the efficacy and speed of this new method against the traditional pacing approach.

Main Methods:

• Twenty beagles were divided into two groups: pacing bigeminal (n=10) and traditional (n=10).
• A commercially available dual-chamber pacemaker was used for the pacing bigeminal method.
• Echocardiography, electrocardiograms, and myocardial microscopic evaluation were performed at various time points.

Main Results:

• The pacing bigeminal method induced heart failure significantly faster (7.9 ± 2.5 days) than the traditional method (10.5 ± 2.3 days) (P < 0.05).
• Both methods successfully induced wide QRS duration, heart rate elevation, and microscopic myocardial changes.
• No significant difference was observed in the extent of these induced changes between the groups.

Conclusions:

• The pacing bigeminal method is a feasible and effective alternative for rapidly inducing heart failure in animal models.
• This novel technique offers a faster and more accessible approach for DCM research compared to traditional methods.