Abstract
The gratifying results of fundamental evaluation and clinical use of Gultaraldehyde (GA)-tanned Human Umbilical Cord Vessels (H-UCV) as a vascular substitute were reported in the 15th Congress. Since H-UCV are not applicable for vessels greater than 6mn in diameter, larger sized material has been searched and our interest focused on Equine Umbilical Cord Vessel. The Equine Umbilical Cord has one vein (E-UCV) with diameter of 13-15mm, and two arteries (E-UCA), 6-8mm in diameter.
Pressure tolerance test, Tensil-Strain test, Amino Acid Analysis and in vitro Antithrombogenicity were evaluated on these materials. Pressure tolerance test revealed that GA-tanned E-UCV tolerated about 450mnHg as conpared with 300mnHg in GA-tanned H-UCV. Tensil-Strain test revealed that GA-tanned Equine Umbilical Cord Vessels were more increased in elasticity than GA-tanned H-UCV. Amino Acid Analysis indicated that GA-tanned E-UCV lost 78% of Lysine, which is similar to 86% loss in GA-tanned H-UCV. It is assumed that crosslinking by GA takes place mostly among the Lysine residue. E-UCV and H-UCV showed equally high level of anthithrom-bogenicity.
Based on these studies, it is expected that Equine Umbilical Cord Vessels are applicable to the blood vessel, especially as the venous, substitute.
