Influence of acute microwave radiation on cardiac function in normal and myocardial ischemic cats.

Exposure of biological specimens to microwave radiation in vivo and in vitro has been reported to cause alterations to the cardiovascular system. In addition, microwave radiation may cause effects in damaged cardiac tissue that are not observed in normal tissue. In this study, we examined the influence of direct microwave irradiation (2.45 GHz, continuous wave) of the intact exposed heart on cardiac function in cats with and without myocardial ischemia. Myocardial ischemia was induced by occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. In the sham-nonexposed and sham-plus-microwave exposed animals the coronary artery was isolated but not occluded. The exposed hearts were either irradiated at a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 30 mW/g or not irradiated, and were monitored for 5 h. At a SAR of 30 mW/g, the temperature of the exposed tissue increased at an initial rate of 0.43 degrees C/min in dead cats. However, in live animals, no increases in aortic blood temperatures occurred during irradiation. Mean arterial blood pressure, cardiac output, heart rate, plasma and myocardial creatine phosphokinase, and S-T segment were not influenced by 5 h of microwave irradiation of the myocardium in cats with or without myocardial ischemia.