Effects of transient increased afterload during experimentally induced acute myocardial infarction in dogs.

Alterations in afterload may occur during acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but it is unknown whether such alterations cause long-term changes in the left ventricular topography or alter healing of the AMI. AMI was produced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery in open-chest dogs. Eight dogs were randomized to a methoxamine group with an infusion dose of 30 micrograms/kg/min starting 1 hour after ligation for 4 hours to increase systemic systolic pressure by 40 to 50 mm Hg, and 8 were randomized to a saline control group (n = 8). Seven days later the dogs were killed and the hearts examined. The ratio of infarct wall thickness to noninfarct wall thickness was 1.13 +/- 0.03 (mean +/- standard error of the mean) in control dogs and was 0.98 +/- 0.03 in the dogs treated with methoxamine (p less than 0.005). An expansion index was determined as previously reported and expansion was considered to have occurred if this index exceeded 1.09. The expansion index was 0.98 +/- 0.06 in the control group and 1.18 +/- 0.07 in the methoxamine group (p less than 0.05). Histologic analysis suggested a lag in the healing rate in the methoxamine-treated dogs. Thus, early, brief increases in afterload cause infarct expansion and thinning and appears to slow the early healing phase of AMI in dogs.