The effect of intramyocardial pH on functional recovery in neonatal hearts receiving St. Thomas' Hospital cardioplegic solution during global ischemia

The experiments in the present study were designed to address two issues: Is it possible to manipulate intramyocardial pH in neonatal hearts with different buffers in cardioplegic solution and, if so, do differences in intramyocardial pH during ischemia influence functional recovery? Isolated working hearts from 7- to 10-day-old rabbits underwent 60 minutes of cardioplegic arrest at 37 o C with cardioplegic washouts at the onset of ischemia and at 30 minutes