[Hemodynamic and coronary effects of atrial stimulation in normal subject and patients with coronary disease: correlation with coronary arteriography].

Thirty-two patients (group I: 7 normal subjects; group II: 25 coronary subjects) underwent coronary arteriography, and measurements were made both in normal rhythm and under atrial stimulation of the pulmonary capillary pressure and the pressure in the femoral artery, of cardiac output, of coronary sinus flow (by continuous thermodilution), of the coronary arterio-venous oxygen difference, of oxygen consumption, and in 28 of the patients of the coefficient of extraction of K lactates. During stimulation, the only differences to appear between the subjects of group I and group II were an increase in capillary pressure (p less than 0.01) and a decrease in the coefficient of extraction of lactates (p less than 0.001) in the coronary patients. Similar differences were found between coronary patients with a stenosis greater than 70% in the anterior descending or circumflex artery (group IIa) and those without it (group 11b), and between the patients with pain during atrial stimulation (n = 9) and those without it. There was a good correlation between a double score (IVA + circumflex artery, Rowe's method) and the coefficient of extraction of lactates during atrial stimulation (n = 28, p less than 0.01).