Objective: Cardiac lymph is the most direct medium for analyzing metabological changes in the myocardial cell. Currently, dogs are the animals used for investigation of myocardial lymphatic function. However, questions arise when comparing and interpreting the human system to the experimental model, since the dog coronary anatomy is different from human anatomy and pulmonary lymph contamination is found in up to 81% of the cases. Swine, having similar coronary anatomy to humans, are a proven model for cardiovascular research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cardiac lymphatic anatomy of the swine and to develop a reliable cannulation technique to collect the lymph.
Methods and results: The lymphatic anatomy of 60 pigs was studied and classified and a new technique for lymphatic cannulation was developed. The cannulation success rate was 55%. In addition, no pulmonary lymph contamination was found at the cannulation site.
Conclusion: We conclude that porcine myocardial lymphatics can be successfully cannulated for the investigation of myocardial lymphatic function.