The relative influence of arterial pressure versus intraoperative distention on lipid accumulation in primate vein bypass grafts.

Atherosclerotic degeneration has been well documented to be the limiting factor for long-term function of aortacoronary vein bypass grafts. Injury, including that induced by pressure distention in preparation for grafting, is thought to play a role in this degeneration. Injury can be minimized by limiting the distending pressure, but vein grafts are chronically subjected to arterial pressures that far exceed native venous pressure. We evaluated the relative influence of arterial pressure and of higher pressure of distention on cholesterol and apolipoprotein-B accumulation by grafts in our established animal model of graft atherogenesis. Grafts were interposed in the femoral arteries of eight normolipemic stump-tailed macaque monkeys. Before insertion, each vein was distended at 125 mm Hg (arterial pressure) for 1 minute with autologous blood, followed by distention of one half of the vein at 350 mm Hg for 1 additional minute. Grafts and ungrafted control vein were removed 3 months later. Cholesterol concentration in grafts distended at 125 mm Hg was 213% (p less than 0.01) and apolipoprotein-B concentration was 430% (p less than 0.001) of that in ungrafted control veins, whereas in grafts distended at 350 mm Hg cholesterol was 250% (p less than 0.01) and apolipoprotein-B was 925% (p less than 0.001) of the control concentrations. Although morphologic differences between the two groups of grafts were less profound than biochemical differences, foam cells were observed more frequently in grafts distended at 350 mm Hg than in those distended at 125 mm Hg. These data demonstrate that chronic exposure to arterial pressure has a significant effect on graft cholesterol that is proportionally greater than that caused by intraoperative distention at moderate pressure. Nevertheless, the detrimental effects of excessive distending pressures should not be ignored.