Extracorporeal cardiac shock wave therapy improved myocardial micro-vascular circulation after acute myocardial infarction at early stage in pigs

Abstract

Objective: To explore the effect of low-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy to improve myocardial micro-vascular circulation after acute myocardial infarction at the early stage in pig model. Methods A total of 25 domestic pigs were used in this study. Model of acute myocardial infarction ( AMI ) was created successfully by the implantation of angioplasty balloon in mid-distal segment of left anterior descending coronary artery (n = 20). These AMI animals were divided two groups. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy to the ischemic myocardial region was performed for the group of shock wave therapy (n=15) at 3 days after acute myocardial infarction i The remaining AMI animals were treated in the same manner, but without the shock wave therapy (n = 5); The other health animals (n = 5) were used as blank control group. The number of endothelium cell, capillary density. VEGF mRNA level and collateral vessel Rentrop score in each group were evaluated and compared. Results Shock wave treatment up-regulated the mRNA expression of VEGF in the model of acute myocardial infarction (P< 0. 05). Furthermore, the number of capillaries was significantly higher in the shock wave group than that of positive and blank control group (P<0. 05). The Rentrop score of collateral vessel indicated the reconstruction of collateral circulation in shock wave group. Conclusion Extracorporeal cardiac shock wave therapy could effectively induce angiogenesis, up-regulate the expression of angiogenic factor, resulting in an improvement in micro-vascular circulation reconstruction of ischemic myocardial region.