Zhengqin Zhai
Peking Union Medical College, China
Title: Median nerve modulation markedly diminishes ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction in rabbits
Biography
Biography: Zhengqin Zhai
Abstract
Autonomic dysfunction, characterized by sympathetic activation and vagal withdrawal, contributes to the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction. Here, we hypothesize that a novel pathway nerve stimulation - median nerve stimulation inhibit the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction in rabbits. Two weeks after the ligation of mthe left coronary artery, 11 surviving New Zealand rabbits were randomized to median nerve stimulated (MI-MNS, n = 5) group and sham-stimulated (MI-SS, n = 6) group. Using an implantable electrical stimulator, we stimulated the bilateral median nerve for 2 weeks with the frequency of 5 HZ, width of 200ms, cycle of 10s on and 30s off, and the intensity of electrical stimulation was adjusted to the threshold of not resulting in the tremble of upper limbs. A holter was implanted to record the types and frequencies of arrhythmias. The treated rabbits had significantly lower percentage of ventricular arrhythmias (3.67% ± 1.73% vs. 6.69% ± 2.50%, p < 0.001) and lower norepinephrine (NE) level in blood (7.88 ± 2.34 pg/ml vs. 17.57 pg/ml± 11.72pg/ml, p = 0.01) than the untreated rabbits. Median nerve modulation markedly decreased the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction in rabbits through reducing the NE level in blood.