The relationships of high energy phosphates, tissue pH, and regional blood flow to diastolic distensibility in the ischemic dog myocardium.

Myocardial ischemia due to increased oxygen demand (pacing tachycardia plus critical coronary stenoses) alters diastolic distensibility and relaxation more than ischemia of comparable duration due to coronary occlusion. To investigate the relationship between myocardial diastolic function and metabolism, we compared myocardial high energy phosphate content, tissue pH, and regional blood flow for these two types of ischemia in anesthetized open-chest dogs. Myocardial biopsies were done with a high-speed air-turbine biopsy drill, permitting rapid (less than 1-second) freezing of tissue samples from both nonischemic and ischemic areas, while myocardial pH was measured with a hydrogen ion-selective polymer membrane implanted in the subendocardium. After 3 minutes of pacing tachycardia in dogs with critical coronary stenoses (demand-type ischemia, n = 14), regional systolic function (% segment shortening by ultrasonic crystals) was mildly depressed (from 19 +/- 2% control to 13 +/- 2% post-pacing, P less than 0.01), while left ventricular diastolic pressure-segment length relations shifted upward, indicating decreased distensibility of the ischemic myocardial segment. Associated with these changes in function, subendocardial adenosine triphosphate decreased (from 31.3 +/- 1.5 to 27.9 +/- 1.0 nmol/mg protein, P less than 0.01), as did creatine phosphate (53.8 +/- 2.1 to 39.6 +/- 2.5 nmol/mg protein, P less than 0.01), while myocardial pH declined slightly (delta pH = -0.14 +/- 0.02, P less than 0.01). In contrast, at 3 minutes of coronary artery occlusion (primary ischemia, n = 14), regional segment shortening was replaced by systolic bulging (% shortening decreased from 17 +/- 2% to -2 +/- 1% during occlusion, P less than 0.01), while left ventricular pressure-segment length relations were not shifted upward, and there was no decrease in diastolic distensibility of the ischemic segment. With coronary artery occlusion, subendocardial adenosine triphosphate declined slightly (33.2 +/- 0.5 to 29.2 +/- 2.0 nmol/mg, P less than 0.05), while creatine phosphate decreased substantially (51.1 +/- 2.3 to 7.8 +/- 1.4 nmol/mg protein, P less than 0.01). Myocardial pH fell strikingly (delta pH = -0.33 +/- 0.03, P less than 0.01), and the decline was 236% of that seen with demand-type ischemia. Regional myocardial blood flow (microsphere technique) showed a decreased endocardial:epicardial (endo:epi) ratio (1.04 +/- 0.04 control vs. 0.40 +/- 0.05 during pacing, P less than 0.01) and absolute subendocardial flow (1.02 +/- 0.47 to 0.47 +/- 0.05 ml/min per g, P less than 0.01) with demand-type ischemia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)