Fig. 3.
SS (Dahl salt-sensitive/Mcwi) rats exhibit worse mortality and increased effusions after localized cardiac irradiation compared with the SS-3BN (substitution of rat chromosome 3 from the resistant Brown Norway rat strain onto the SS background) rats. A: increased cardiac mortality was observed after 24 Gy localized cardiac radiation therapy (RT) in SS female rats (5/11 SS vs. 0/7 SS-3BN rats; *P < 0.05). B: at 2.5 and 5 mo post-RT, SS (n = 6) female rats had increased pleural effusion volumes compared with SS-3BN (n = 7) rats, quantified at time of euthanasia. The volume of pleural effusion was larger in SS vs. SS-3BN rats at 2.5 mo postradiation, as well as at 5 mo in the surviving SS vs. SS-3BN rats: †P < 0.01; #P < 0.001. Values are means ± SE. C: at 3 mo, SS and SS-3BN had comparable number of rats with moderate (mod) to severe pericardial effusion, but the SS surviving to 5 mo postradiation had significantly more moderate to severe pericardial effusions (6/6 SS vs. 1/7 SS-3BN rats) detected via echocardiogram: †P < 0.01.