Effect of surgical reduction of left ventricular outflow obstruction on hemodynamics, coronary flow, and myocardial metabolism in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

To assess the impact of operative reduction of left ventricular outflow obstruction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, measurements of great cardiac vein flow, oxygen and lactate content, left ventricular pressures, and cardiac index were measured at rest and during pacing stress in 20 consecutive patients (13, myotomy-myectomy; six, mitral valve replacement; one, both myotomy-myectomy and mitral valve replacement) who underwent both preoperative and postoperative studies. All had angiographically normal epicardial coronary arteries. Operation resulted in reduction in outflow gradient (64 +/- 38 to 4 +/- 7 mm Hg, p less than 0.001) and in left ventricular systolic pressure (186 +/- 32 to 128 +/- 22 mm Hg, p less than 0.001) and was associated with reduction in great cardiac vein flow (101 +/- 26 to 78 +/- 16 ml/min, p less than 0.001) and oxygen consumption in the anterior left ventricle and septum (11.9 +/- 4.1 to 8.4 +/- 1.9 ml O2/min, p less than 0.001) in the basal state. During rapid atrial pacing, 13 of 20 patients experienced chest pain postoperatively, whereas all 20 developed chest pain during preoperative pacing, with an improvement in pacing anginal threshold (or heart rate 150 if no chest pain was experienced) of 16 +/- 18 beats/min (p less than 0.001). The peak great cardiac vein flow (161 +/- 41 to 131 +/- 45 ml/min, p less than 0.025) and myocardial oxygen consumption (19.4 +/- 6.1 to 14.3 +/- 5.5 ml O2/min, p less than 0.005) during pacing, which correlated directly with the severity of the basal left ventricular gradient (p = 0.011 and p = 0.002, respectively), were also reduced by surgery. Lactate metabolism during pacing changed from net production before surgery to net consumption after operation (-17 +/- 47.6 to 4.4 +/- 29.8 mumol/min, p less than 0.01), with six of 20 patients producing lactate after surgery compared with 13 of 20 before surgery (p = 0.06). The six patients with the highest peak great cardiac vein flow (greater than 175 ml/min) during preoperative pacing had greater symptom and metabolic benefit during pacing after surgery compared with the 14 patients with lower peak coronary flow. Postpacing left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (30 +/- 7 to 23 +/- 7 mm Hg, p less than 0.001) and pulmonary artery wedge pressure (24 +/- 6 to 20 +/- 5, p less than 0.001) were reduced after surgery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)