Abstract
In order to establish a reliable and practical method to make a diagnosis on the organ viability for the organ transplant,we propose a method to evaluate the oxygen consumption rate.To validate this concept,we prototyped an experimental system,with which the oxygen transfer rate into tissue can be assessed by the rate of change of the decrease in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration within the buffer fluid surrounding the target tissue.The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of our newly prototyped experimental system by comparing among fresh and non-fresh rat heart and the heart after the preservation within a refrigerator for 4 hours.The results showed that the fresher heart the more oxygen amount have transferred into the heart.This suggested that heart oxygen consumption is highly related to heart freshness,and can indirectly assess the heart viability.And furthermore,the heart after the 4 hours preservation within the refrigerator showed very similar oxygen consumption rate level to that of fresh heart.This would suggest that the freezing kept the heart good viability as fresh heart and deterred the degradation of heart.From these aspects,the feasibility of the prototyped experimental setup was shown.
