Relation between the transmural extent of acute myocardial infarction and associated myocardial contractility two weeks after infarction.

To characterize the relation between the transmural extent of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and associated regional contractility after recovery from ischemia, 11 mongrel dogs underwent occlusion of the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery and were evaluated 2 weeks after infarction. Occlusion was permanent in 5 dogs, and reperfusion was allowed after 2 hours of occlusion in 6 dogs. All dogs had computer-assisted quantitative wall-thickening analysis by 2-dimensional echocardiography and infarct localization by the triphenyl-tetrazolium chloride technique. Percent systolic wall thickening was correlated with the transmural extent of AMI in 40 regions of interest, each measuring approximately 60 arc degrees in circumference. In 11 non-infarct-containing regions, the mean wall thickening was 59 +/- 16% (+/- standard deviation). In 29 infarct-containing segments (with transmural extent of infarction 11 to 100%) systolic wall thickening ranged from -4% to 47%. Wall thickening and transmural extent of AMI were inversely related. Least-squares regression analysis found the relation to be best described by the logarithmic function, percent wall thickening = 61 - 26 log (percent transmural extent of infarction +1), r = -0.87. The nature of this relation between structure and function suggests that salvage of small amounts of myocardium (transmural extent less than 30 to 40%) by coronary reperfusion or other means may have little effect on systolic myocardial function when compared with the function of transmural infarcts. Alternatively, salvage of more than 40% of the jeopardized myocardium should be expected to appreciably augment myocardial function.