Perioperative preservation of myocardial ultrastructure and high-energy phosphates in man.

To establish whether hypothermic crystalloid potassium cardioplegia given in multidose fashion provides adequate preservation of myocardial ultrastructure and high-energy phosphates, we studied 25 patients with an ejection fraction of 50% or higher who were undergoing cardiac procedures. Eight patients had three biopsy specimens taken from the left ventricular apex for determination of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and creatine phosphate (CP). Specimens were taken immediately prior to aortic cross-clamping, immediately after the release of the aortic cross-clamp, and 30 minutes after the release of the cross-clamp. Seventeen patients had six specimens taken form the left ventricular apex at the above-stated times, three for ATP and CP determination and three additional specimens for electron microscopy. One patient had a small perioperative infarction and another patient died on the fifth postoperative day of an aortic dissection. The mitochondria on the electron microscopic specimens were graded on a scale from 0 to 4 (4 = severe changes). There was no significant difference in the mitochondrial scores. The preservation oh high-energy phosphates was less complete. ATP was reduced to 78% (3.4.2) of control and CP was reduced in the immediate postclamp period to 32% (081/2.5)of control. The difference are particularly significant if one looks at patients whose aortic cross-clamp time was 90 minutes or more (12 patients). In this group, ATP an CP preservation were 71% of control (3.33/4.60 mmoles/kg. wet weight) and 53% of control (l.48/2.81), 30 minutes after clamp removal (p equal to or less than 0.01). We conclude that hypothermic potassium cardioplegia gives excellent preservation of the myocardial ultrastructure in man. However, the preservation of high-energy phosphates with this technique is imperfect.