Patent Abstract:
a method for preventing or reducing hemispheric cerebral oxygen desaturation in a subject undergoing surgery , wherein the method comprising the prophylactic administration of a vasodilator to the subject .

Detailed Description:
the experiments described herein may be predictive of biological effects in humans or other mammals and / or may serve as models for use of the present invention in humans or other mammals for the prevention of a reduction in cerebral oxygen saturation during surgery ( e . g ., heart surgery , carotid artery surgery and any chest surgery , among other possibilities ) following approval by the ethics and research committees and written informed consent , 30 patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery in a tertiary care university hospital between march and november 2004 were recruited . to be eligible for the study , patients needed to undergo a cardiac surgical procedure requiring cpb and to be at high - risk as defined by a parsonnet score & gt ; 15 ( 19 ). patients were excluded if they had received intravenous nitroglycerine ( ntg ) for more than 12 hrs within 24 hrs of surgery . all patients were premedicated with 0 . 1 mg / kg of morphine and 3 - 8 mg of midazolam administered intramuscularly approximately 1 hour before surgery . in the operating room , usual monitoring was installed , including 5 - lead electrocardiogram , digital pulse saturometer , capnography , radial arterial line , a 15 - cm 3 - lumen catheter ( cs - 12703 , arrow international inc ., reading , calif .) and a pulmonary artery catheter ( swan - ganz thermodilution catheter 7 . 5 fr ; baxter healthcare corporation , irvine , calif .). regional cerebral oxygen saturation was monitored using near - infrared spectroscopy ( invos 4100 , somanetics , troy , mich .) ( 20 ). near - infrared spectroscopy ( nirs ) has been advocated as a useful monitor of brain oxygenation . it offers the advantage of providing assessment of regional cerebral oxygen saturation , even with a non - pulsatile flow , as during cpb . the nirs oximeter has been validated against many other forms of cerebral monitoring ( jugular venous saturation ( 14 ), cerebral blood flow ( 15 )) and in many clinical contexts ( cardiac surgery , neurosurgery , intensive care unit , etc ( 16 - 18 )). in the present study , a 5 . 0 - mhz transesophageal echocardiographic omniplane probe ( hewlett - packard sonos 5500 , andover , mass .) was then inserted and used as needed for cardiac and valvular function evaluation . anesthesia was induced with an intravenous dose of 0 . 04 mg / kg of midazolam and 1 mg / kg of sufentanyl , and neuromuscular blockage was achieved with 0 . 6 mg / kg of rocuronium . anesthesia was maintained with 1 mg / kg / h of sufentanyl , 0 . 04 mg / kg / h of midazolam , and 30 - 50 mg / kg / min of propofol . isoflurane was used at need by the attending anesthesiologist . all patients were ventilated with 100 % oxygen and minute ventilation was adjusted to maintain a paco2 between 35 - 45 mmhg confirmed by serial arterial blood gas . intravenous fluids ( 0 . 9 % normal saline ) were administered according to estimated insensible losses of 7 cc / kg / h . all patients received an intravenous bolus of aprotinine ( 2 mu ), followed by a perfusion ( 500 000 u / hr ) during cpb . randomization was done according to computerized random numbers . the study drug was prepared by the pharmacist and delivered to the operating room wrapped up in an opaque paper so that it was impossible for the anesthesiologist to know which perfusion was given to the patient . following the induction of anesthesia , the administration of ntg ( 0 . 1 mg / ml ; sabex , boucherville , qc , canada ) or placebo ( d5 %), began at a rate of 0 . 5 μg / kg / min , and was increased to 1 μg / kg / min immediately after the beginning of cpb . based on previous studies , we used a ntg dose between 0 . 5 and 1 μg / kg / min . which would be adequate to prevent cardiac ischemia ( 21 ), safe ( 22 , 23 ) and previously used to increase transcutaneous saturometry in high - risk surgery ( 13 ). at the end of the cpb , the study drug was stopped and the anesthesiologist was then free to use any useful medication ( including intravenous ntg ) for hemodynamic stabilization of the patient . hypotension before or during cpb was treated according to a standardized protocol , using intravenous perfusion of neosinephrine or norepinephrine , and then , intravenous bolus of vasopressin , epinephrine or methylene blue ( fig2 ). in presence of refractory hypotension persisting more than 5 mins , the study drug was stopped . a protocol was used for weaning the patient from cpb ( fig3 ). at the time of randomization , demographic , diagnostic ( nyha class , parsonnet score , comorbidities , ejection fraction ), and therapeutic ( medication , type of surgery , redo ) information was obtained for every patient . after the induction of anesthesia and before the beginning of the study drug perfusion ( time 0 ), baseline hemodynamic values ( systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures , pulmonary arterial wedge pressure , heart rate , right atrial pressure , and cardiac output by standard thermodilution method ) were measured along with arterial and mixed venous blood gas . the same values were recorded just before ( time 1 ) and immediately after ( time 2 ) cpb . the cerebral oxygen saturation was recorded every 30 secs from the induction of anesthesia to the closure of the thorax . the cpb duration , aortic cross - clamping time , total intravenous fluids administered , total diuresis , total dose of heparin and total dose and duration of each vasopressor used were also recorded . an outcome measure was observed based on mean and serial measures of hemispheric cerebral oxygen saturation during cpb . other outcomes included other markers of tissue perfusion including whole blood lactate concentration , arteriovenous difference of partial co2 pressure , and mixed venous oxygen saturation from time 0 to time 2 ; difficult separation from cpb , as defined as systolic arterial blood pressure lower than 80 mmhg with a diastolic pulmonary artery pressure or a wedge higher than 15 mmhg and use of vasopressors ( norepinephrine & gt ; 0 . 06 μg . kg - 1 . min - 1 , epinephrine & gt ; 0 . 06 μg . kg - 1 . min - 1 , dobutamine & gt ; 2 μg . kg - 1 . min - 1 ), or use of intravenous milrinone during withdrawal of cpb or transport to the intensive care unit ; other cardiac outcomes ( ck - mb , use of a new intraaortic balloon pump during surgery , successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation during the hospital stay ); and other clinical outcomes ( length of icu and total hospital stay , and death ). safety outcomes were also measured : blood losses during and 24 hrs after surgery , drop of hemoglobin during surgery , need for transfusion , and ratio of the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood to inspired o2 fraction ( pao2 / fio2 ratio ), to explore any antiplatelet or ventilation effect . follow - up ended when the patient was discharged from the hospital . the results are expressed as mean ± standard deviation or with median ( min , max ) according to the distribution for continuous variables , or as number and percentages for categorical variables . a logarithmic transformation was used when a continuous variable was not normally distributed . for continuous variables , comparison of groups was performed using the parametric ( t - test ) or nonparametric ( wilcoxon ) test depending on the distribution . for categorical variables , comparison of groups was performed using pearson chi - square test . baseline hemodynamic values ( systemic and pulmonary arterial pressures , pulmonary arterial wedge pressure , heart rate , right atrial pressure , and cardiac output by standard thermodilution method ) were measured with arterial and mixed venous blood gas at times t 0 ( after the induction of anesthesia and before the beginning of the study drug perfusion ), t 1 ( just before cpb ) and t 2 ( immediately after cpb ). to test variation between groups and over time , repeated measures anova with group , time ( t 0 , t 1 and t 2 ) and group × time interaction were performed . in case of statistically significant findings , appropriate contrasts were conducted , based on the global anova model . same method was used for analysis of repeated hemispheric cerebral saturation measures . statistical analysis was done with the computer software sas version 8 . 02 . a p value & lt ; 0 . 05 was considered statistically significant . a total of 30 patients were enrolled in the study . their clinical and demographic characteristics are presented in table 1 . patients had a mean age of 73 ± 10 years , a parsonnet score of 27 ± 9 , and 67 % had clinical congestive heart failure . their mean baseline ejection fraction was 50 ± 12 %. coronary artery bypass graft were performed in 5 patients , valvular procedures in 10 , combined revascularization and valvular procedures surgeries in 15 and one patient had a bentall procedure with a ventricular septal defect closure . except for the use of beta - blockers on admission , which was higher in the ntg group ( 87 % vs 47 %; p = 0 . 05 ), other initial characteristics were not statistically different among groups . mean cpb time was 107 ± 42 mins ( 97 ± 32 mins in the control group vs . 118 ± 49 mins in the treatment group ; p = 0 . 17 ). from the end of cpb to chest closure , patients in the control and the ntg groups received respectively 0 . 65 ± 1 . 68 mg and 0 . 55 ± 1 . 03 mg ( p = 0 . 55 ) of intravenous ntg . the evolution overtime of hemispheric cerebral oxygen saturation during the procedure was different in the ntg compared to the placebo group ( table 2 and fig1 ). in the ntg group , both the left and right mean cerebral saturations were unchanged from the beginning to the end of the procedure as compared to the placebo group , in which the saturation decreased at the end of cpb ( p = 0 . 006 , left ; p = 0 . 005 , right ) ( fig3 ). respectively , 5 and 5 patients in the placebo group did not maintain their mean left and right saturations within 25 % of their baseline , against 1 and 2 patients in the ntg group . other indirect perfusion values ( mixed venous blood oxygen saturation , arteriovenous difference of partial co2 pressure and plasma lactates ) did not show any statistically significant difference between groups ( table 2 ). both groups had similar hemodynamic profile ( table 3 ) although the right atrial pressures were slightly higher in the ntg group throughout the study ( even before infusion ) ( p = 0 . 03 ), as was the systolic pulmonary artery pressure ( p = 0 . 004 ). in both groups , the systolic blood pressure had a tendency to decrease from the induction of anesthesia to the beginning of the cpb , and to increase at the end of cpb ( p = 0 . 053 ). however there was no difference between groups . the heart rate , the right atrial pressure , the systolic pulmonary artery pressure , and the cardiac output were all significantly higher at the end of the cpb in both groups ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 ), compared to others values earlier in the surgery . as shown in table 4 , patients in the ntg group received more norepinephrine during the procedure ( 546 ± 563 μg vs 1209 ± 1037 μg ; p = 0 . 04 ). however , this difference was not statistically significant when expressed as a function of surgery length ( p = 0 . 096 ). there was no significant difference between groups in the amount of fluid infused ( p = 0 . 19 ). no patient in either group had their study drug stopped because of hypotension . other clinical outcomes are presented in table 5 . patients in the ntg group had higher ck - mb the day after surgery ( control : 19 ± 12 vs ntg : 58 ± 67 , p = 0 . 006 ). the proportion of hemodynamic instability at the end of cpb , the need for postoperative intra - aortic balloon pump ( iabp ), and the need for vasopressors for more than 24 hrs were the same in both groups . the hospital ( but not the icu ) stay tended to be longer in the ntg group ( 14 ± 7 vs 9 ± 3 , p = 0 . 06 ). two deaths occurred in ntg group . the first patient had a postoperative course complicated by a transient renal insufficiency and a cerebrovascular event ( diagnosed on day 2 ), which kept her at the hospital until postoperative day 14 . she was waiting for her transfer in a rehabilitation center , when she underwent sudden cardiac arrest with unsuccessful resuscitation . because of an earlier episode of desaturation , the attending surgeon concluded to a probable pulmonary embolism . the second patient died on postoperative day 4 . prior to surgery , he was in nyha class 4 , had recent myocardial infarction , pulmonary hypertension , and a parsonnet score of 30 . 5 . his baseline left ventricular ejection fraction was 30 %. at the end of a cpb of 83 mins , he required milrinone and norepinephrine perfusions , and an iabp . on postop day 1 , a diagnosis of perioperative myocardial infarction was confirmed with 10 - fold increase of ck - mb . nevertheless , he was extubated and progressively weaned from vasopressors . the iabp was withdrawn on postoperative day 4 and the same evening , he suffered from a cardiopulmonary arrest . an autopsy revealed a global cardiac failure secondary to recent cardiac infarction , without other visible complications . table 5 also presents safety outcomes . blood losses were similar in both groups during surgery ( control : 429 ± 261 vs ntg : 547 ± 251 , p = 0 . 23 ), as were the transfused blood volumes ( control : 332 ± 408 vs ntg : 380 ± 400 , p = 0 . 75 ) and the change of hemoglobin before and after surgery ( p = 0 . 17 ). patients in the ntg group needed more heparin during surgery ( control : 306 ± 118 mg vs ntg : 393 ± 111 , p = 0 . 047 ) but the same amount when corrected for cpb duration . the ntg group lost more blood during the first 24 hrs after surgery ( control : 460 ± 304 vs ntg : 762 ± 411 ml ) ( p = 0 . 03 ). the pao2 / fio2 ratio was lower for patients who received ntg ( control : 372 ± 48 vs ntg : 308 ± 106 ; p = 0 . 046 ). the above - described study indicates that intravenous administration of ntg during high - risk cardiac surgery reduced or prevented hemispheric cerebral oxygen desaturation during cpb . this favorable effect could not be demonstrated using traditional measures of global perfusion , as both groups showed similar cardiac index , central jugular venous saturation , and plasma lactates . furthermore , the results of this study showed that up to one third of patients in the placebo group suffered from significant brain oxygen desaturation . therefore , intravenous administration of a vasodilator , such as ntg , represents an effective strategy to maintain brain oxygen regional saturation , particularly in high - risk patients undergoing cardiac surgery under cpb . more generally , these data show that intravenous administration of a vasodilator , such as ntg , represents an effective strategy to maintain brain oxygen regional saturation in any patient undergoing surgery . in the present study , the perfusion rate of the study drug was not adjusted according to cerebral saturation values and did not have a predetermined strategy to correct cerebral oxygen desaturation if other parameters were normal . the baseline values for cerebral saturation were maintained throughout the procedure . this issue is important as the literature suggests that prolonged and / or severe desaturations during cardiac procedures , as indicated by the cerebral oximeter measures , predict a higher risk of postoperative neurological - psychological complications ( 20 , 34 ). an absolute reduction of 20 % under baseline value or saturation below 50 % has been proposed as justification for intervention ( 20 , 34 - 38 ), although most of the available studies suffer from methodological limitations ( 20 ). the favorable evolution of cerebral oxygen saturation in the ntg patients was not associated with similar changes in other markers of global tissue perfusion . several studies have shown that tissue perfusion could be impaired in the presence of “ normal ” hemodynamic conditions using gastric tonometry or sublingual microcirculation monitors ( 39 ). in such instance , vasodilators such as ntg , have been proposed as potential therapeutic agents ( 7 , 40 ). higher elevation of ck - mb in the ntg group may indicate a possible side effect of the proposed treatment , but it is difficult to assess the real clinical impact of this difference . ck - mb has been shown to lack specificity for the diagnosis of perioperative myocardial infarct ( 41 , 42 ). the population that was studied included many patients with valve surgery , for whom precise ischemic cut - off is even less well defined ( 43 ). as the troponins level and the st changes were not recorded , it is hard to conclude that the patients in the ntg group really experienced more perioperative ischemic episodes . there was also a trend to worse outcome for some variables in the ntg group including the use of vasopressors for more than 24 hrs and the length of hospital stay . baseline difference between groups such as higher right atrial and pulmonary artery pressure in the ntg group may explain this result . the bleeding complications were similar in both groups except for the blood losses during the first 24 hrs after surgery . longest cpb may again be an explanation . previous clinical studies have never demonstrated more clinical bleeding with ntg ( 44 ), despite its theoretical anti - platelet effect . nitroglycerin will also dilate pulmonary vessels and this could increase intrapulmonary shunt . accordingly , partial pressure of oxygen in the arterial blood to inspired fraction of oxygen ( pao2 / fio2 ratio ) at the end of surgery was statistically lower in the ntg group . the difference was probably without any clinical consequence , as values stayed over 300 mm hg in both groups . in summary , ntg infusion before and during cpb appears as an effective strategy to prevent the reduction of cerebral oxygen saturation during cpb in high - 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