Establishment of nonobstructive coronary microcirculatory disorders in rabbits using three established methods and a...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Research
• Animal Models
• Medical Technology

Background:

• Nonobstructive coronary microcirculatory disease is challenging to model.
• Current modeling techniques have limitations in efficiency and invasiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy and drawbacks of three methods for establishing rabbit models of coronary microcirculatory disease.
• To evaluate open thoracic subtotal ligation, ultrasound-guided cardiac microsphere injection, and sodium laurate injection.

Main Methods:

• New Zealand rabbits were divided into four groups: normal, open-chest ligation, microsphere injection (Echo-M), and sodium laurate injection (Echo-SL).
• Procedures were compared based on echocardiography, stress myocardial contrast echocardiography, pathology, and surgical time.
• Cardiac function, myocardial perfusion, and pathological features were analyzed 24 hours post-procedure.

Main Results:

• All experimental groups showed reduced cardiac function, with the open-chest group most severely affected.
• Myocardial contrast echocardiography revealed reduced perfusion in affected areas.
• Pathological findings included ischemia (open-chest), embolism (Echo-M), and thrombosis (Echo-SL), with varying inflammatory responses and collagen deposition.

Conclusions:

• Ultrasound-guided intracardiac injection methods (Echo-M and Echo-SL) are superior to open-chest surgery for modeling coronary microcirculatory disease due to lower invasiveness and better procedural efficiency.
• The study refines cardiac injection techniques and provides evidence for clinical investigations.