OBJECTIVE: The necessity for replacement of the valve, ascending aorta and aortic with coronary reimplantation in patients where anti-coagulation is undesirable, is increasing. We evaluated the hemodynamic performance of an aortic valved conduit made with glutaraldehyde treated bovine pericardium (AVCP) in animals. METHODS: Therefore, AVCPs were implanted in eight young ovine and explanted after 150 days. Angiographic and hemodynamic study was performed at pre-operative and prior the explant. EchoDopplercardiograms were performed at day 30 and 150 of post-operative (test) and also in five nonoperated ovines. After explanted, AVCPs were submitted to a macroscopical, radiological and histological evaluation by optic microscopy. RESULTS: In the hemodynamic analysis the arterial and pulmonary capillary pressure increased (P<0.05) between day 0 and 150. In the echoDoppercardiographic analysis, the test group presented higher values in the diastolic and systolic diameters of the left ventricle (P<0.05). In the test group, between day 30 and 150, occurred an increase of weight, thickness of the left ventricle walls, maximum transvalvar gradient, medium transvalvar gradient, left ventricle diastolic diameter and a decrease in the ejection function (P<0.05). Two animals with endocarditis explain those differences, how we can see with the statistycal analysis without this sample. Macroscopy showed calcification in variable degrees. Optic microscopy revealed data similar to literature with the use of glutaraldehyde treated bovine pericadium. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the AVCPs allows the performance of this kind of experiment in the proposed model and that the hemodynamic outcomes found are similar to physiological parameters.
Aortic valve; Heart valve prosthesis; Models, animal; Sheep
