Echocardiographic assessment of LV
In all six pigs included in the study, we successfully completed all assessments and successfully loaded the ventricles transitioning from unloaded non-working (LM) perfusion mode to two different working modes by loading the left and the right atrium. At all timepoints we were able to obtain good quality epicardial echocardiographic images that allowed a complete systolic assessment of LV (Fig. 2). Overall, all indices showed a decrease in LV systolic function throughout the trial (Fig. 3; Table 1).
The LVEF was 56.71% ± 7.86, 37.28% ± 14.56, 31.44% ± 6.90, and 20.76% ± 5.23 at baseline, SAM1, PAM and SAM2, respectively. The LVFAC was 57.64% ± 5.16, 42.19% ± 18.38, 14.78% ± 4.73 and 17.66% ± 6.44 at baseline, SAM1, PAM and SAM2, respectively. The LVFS was 31.98% ± 2.57, 17.97% ± 4.29, 12.99% ± 5.38 and 13.37% ± 5.34 at baseline, SAM1, PAM and SAM2, respectively.
GLS was -12.26% ± 2.50, -4.72% ± 2.81, -4.71% ± 2.07, -3.08% ± 1.60 at baseline, SAM1, PAM and SAM2, respectively. The GCS was -24.50% ± 5.57, -14.75% ± 7.32, -8.67% ± 4.51, -7.75% ± 3.20 at baseline, SAM1, PAM and SAM2, respectively. The RAD was -21.75% ± 2.50, -5.25% ± 4.78, -3.00% ± 7.00, -5.00% ± 3.83 at baseline, SAM1, PAM and SAM2, respectively.