Figure 1:
Ach-mediated vasodilation was preserved in the radial artery (RA) harvested via open technique. Two to three RA rings from each patient were mounted in the wire myograph system (620M, DMT). (A) After stabilization, RA rings were assessed for vasodilation in response to increasing concentrations of ACh (1 × 10−9–3 × 10−6 M) as indicated. Two-way analysis of variance was used for the statistical analysis. ***P < 0.001 for the group effect, specifically ORAH compared to ERAH. ORAH = 23 patients; ERAH = 16 patients. (B) Vasoconstriction in response to PE (1 × 10−6 M) was also assessed in both groups, ORAH (n = 8) and ERAH (n = 9). Data are presented in (A) as mean with standard error of the mean and (B) as mean with standard deviation. ACh: acetylcholine; ERAH: endoscopic radial artery harvesting; ORAH: open radial artery harvesting; PE: phenylephrine.