SRA

We have developed an endovascular micro-endomyocardial biopsy device (Micro-EMB) with an outer diameter of 0.4 mm in order to minimize procedural risk, sampling trauma, and increase sampling specificity compared to conventional EMB. Here, we have taken micro-EMB samples from swine myocardium before, during and after myocardial infarction to detect potential gene expression responses. Overall design: Twentythree blood samples and 62 micro-biopsy samples from the left ventricular myocardial wall were taken from three individual swine. Of the micro-biopsy samples, 6 were taken at baseline, 9 during the one hour occlusion (0 -1 h), 22 at 1 - 3 hours, 21 after two days and 21 after 14 days. The biopsies were either aimed at the apical region of the heart, which was considered affected by the infarction, or lateral regions of the heart which were considered non-affected by the infarction.