Leonard Newlin

A new heart failure model in rat by an end-to-side femoral vessel anastomosis.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to develop a new shunting procedure for producing heart failure in the rat incorporating microvascular techniques and avoiding an abdominal operation. METHOD We performed an end-to-side anastomosis between the femoral vein and the femoral artery just proximal to their trifurcation into the saphenous, epigastric, and distal femoral vessels. RESULTS Of the 15 rats which underwent this procedure, six died within 48 h. The nine surviving animals were sacrificed and examined six weeks following surgery. All nine had developed cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac failure. CONCLUSION This model provides a relatively simple and reproducible means of creating high output heart failure and cardiac hypertrophy in the rat without necessitating abdominal surgery.

Muscle flap monitoring in a rat model with a variable gain quantitative fluorometer

&NA; A variable gain dermofluorometer with a wide range of sensitivities capable of quantifying fluorescein emission from both skin and muscle was tested in a rat latissimus dorsi island muscle flap model. Quantitative fluorometric readings directly from muscle and skin sites that did not undergo surgery were taken at intervals over 2 hours after intravenous fluorescein injection. Muscle flaps with intact pedicles gave an inflow‐outflow pattern. A no‐outflow pattern was seen in muscle flaps with ligated pedicle veins and a no‐inflow pattern was seen in muscle flaps with ligated pedicle arteries. These patterns were similar to the flow pattern seen with quantitative fluorometric monitoring in flaps with cutaneous components. These results suggest that quantitative fluorometry may be applicable to circulation monitoring in muscle flaps.