Ventricular unloading causes prolongation of the QT interval and induces ventricular arrhythmias in rat hearts
Alexander Peter Schwoerer, Daniel Biermann, Heimo Ehmke
TL;DR
Reducing the workload on rat hearts leads to longer QT intervals and more ventricular arrhythmias, suggesting workload reduction alone can cause dangerous heart rhythms.
Contribution
This study directly shows that ventricular unloading causes arrhythmias in vivo, independent of other factors.
Findings
56 days of unloading prolonged the QT interval by approximately 66%.
Unloading induced a tenfold increase in ventricular arrhythmias compared to control hearts.
Ventricular unloading reduced left ventricular weight by about 50%.
Abstract
Ventricular unloading during prolonged bed rest, mechanical circulatory support or microgravity has repeatedly been linked to potentially life-threatening arrhythmias. It is unresolved, whether this arrhythmic phenotype is caused by the reduction in cardiac workload or rather by underlying diseases or external stimuli. We hypothesized that the reduction in cardiac workload alone is sufficient to impair ventricular repolarization and to induce arrhythmias in hearts. Rat hearts were unloaded using the heterotopic heart transplantation. The ECG of unloaded and of control hearts were telemetrically recorded over 56 days resulting in >5 × 106 cardiac cycles in each heart. Long-term electrical remodeling was analyzed using a novel semi-automatic arrhythmia detection algorithm. 56 days of unloading reduced left ventricular weight by approximately 50%. While unloading did not affect average…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSpaceflight effects on biology · Mitochondrial Function and Pathology