Coronary hemodynamics and myocardial metabolism of lactate, free fatty acids, glucose, and ketones in patients with septic shock.

To investigate disturbances in the coronary circulation and myocardial metabolism during septic shock, we examined coronary sinus blood flow and myocardial substrate extraction in 40 patients with septic shock and 13 control patients. Patients with coronary artery disease were excluded from this study. The global hemodynamic pattern of the septic patients was characterized by a lower stroke volume, despite an elevated cardiac index. Coronary sinus blood flow was high (187 +/- 47 vs 130 +/- 21 ml/min in the control group, p less than .001) due to marked coronary vasodilation, especially in the subgroup of nonsurvivors. In contrast to the control group, myocardial lactate uptake was elevated, while that of free fatty acids, glucose, and ketone bodies was diminished in patients with septic shock. These findings were especially prominent in the nonsurvivors. Expressed as oxygen equivalents, the contribution of free fatty acids as an energy source of the myocardium was markedly diminished in septic patients (12% vs 54% in the control group, p less than .005), while that of lactate was increased (36% vs 12%, p less than .01). The observed shift in myocardial substrate extraction was associated with a discrepancy between measured myocardial oxygen consumption and that calculated chemically from commonly available exogenous substrates: 41% of myocardial oxygen consumption was not explained by the utilization of commonly available substrates extracted from coronary circulation in all patients with septic shock.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)