Chronic overcirculation-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension in aorto-caval shunt

摘要

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a common complication of congenital heart defects with left-to-right shunts. Current predinical models do not reproduce clinical characteristics of shunt-related pulmonary hypertension. Aorto-caval shunt was firstly described as a model of right ventricle volume overload. The pathophysiology and the possible determination of pulmonary arterial hypertension of different periods of shunt exposure are still undefined. A method to create standardized, reproducible aorto-caval shunt was developed in growing rats (260 ± 40 g). Three groups of animals were considered: shunt exposure for 10 weeks, shunt exposure for 20 weeks and control (sham laparotomy).