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Fig. 1 | Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Fig. 1

From: What is the impact of preserving the endothelium on saphenous vein graft performance? Comments on the ‘NO’ touch harvesting technique

Fig. 1

Endothelium of no-touch and conventional saphenous vein grafts for coronary artery bypass grafting. a No-touch saphenous vein with healthy intact endothelium (En) with the apical microvilli (asterisks). Bar: 10 μm. b Conventional saphenous vein with deformed En, endothelial lesions, and exposure of subendothelial connective tissue/matrix (asterisks). Bar: 20 μm. Images A and B are the adjacent segments of the SV from 59 y old male. Harvesting of B involved stripping of adiposa and partially the adventitia; distention with saline at a pressure of 300 mmHg for 1 min using a syringe connected to a manometer – a conventional harvesting lasting about 1 h 10 min. Both no-touch (a) and conventionally (b) harvested segments of SV were stored for about 30 min at room temperature in heparinized patient’s blood obtained from the aortic cannula before implantation. Samples for SEM examination were taken on completion of the proximal anastomosis and fixed and processed in the standard manner. From Vasilakis et al. 2004, which is acknowledged [4]

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