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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Testing the Efficacy of Pharmacological Agents in a Pericardial Target Delivery Model in the Swine
Published on: July 7, 2016
Microphysiology of the pericardium in relation to intrapericardial therapeutics and diagnostics
1University of Massachusetts Medical School, Cardiology Division, St. Vincent Hospital, Worcester, USA.
Abstract:
Intrapericardial delivery of therapeutic agents for pericardial diseases has long been available in the presence of excess pericardial fluid. Most patients with myocardial and coronary disease have no such excess so that their direct treatment requires pericardial access, for which a new instrument has succeeded in animals with induced infarctions, coronary lesions and arrhythmias. Nitric oxide (NO) donors, calcium-avid drugs, antibodies, angiogenic agents (pharmacologic coronary bypass), and hypothermic solutions have been instilled intrapericardially, and even iontophoresis has been used; gene therapy is also promising. Intrinsic pericardiogenic substances may potentially be stimulated for comparable purposes.
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