Research Article Hypoxia-Induced Endothelial Damage and Microthrombosis in

Copyright © 2014 Armando Faa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Evaluating the presence of endothelial changes in myocardial vessels in an experimental model of hypoxia and resuscitation in newborn piglets. Methods. Fifty male Landrace/Large White neonatal piglets were studied: ten of them were allocated in group A (control group, SHAM-operated). In group B (forty animals, experimental group) normocapnic hypoxia was induced by decreasing inspired concentration of O 2 to 6%–8%. When the animals developed bradycardia or severe hypotension, reoxygenation was initiated. The animals of group B were allocated in 4 subgroups of 10, according to the concentration of O 2 they were resuscitated with (groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 received 18%, 21%, 40%, and 100 % O 2, resp.). Results. Control group animals did not show any significant endothelial lesions. Contrarily, endothelial lesions were detected in all experimental group cases. When these lesions were analyzed in the different heart zones, no significant difference in their incidence was observed; analyzing the frequenc