Effect of regional myocardial ischemia on cardiac pump performance during exercise.

The effect of brief periods of regional ischemia upon left ventricular pump performance was studied in nine dogs standing quietly at rest and during running exercise on a treadmill. Transient occlusions of the left circumflex coronary artery resulted in increase in heart rate at rest (+30 beats/min) but not during exercise. Other changes due to occlusion were similar at rest and during exercise and included decreases in stroke volume (-25% standing, -23% running); in dP/dt max, the maximum first derivative of the left ventricular pressure (-20% standing or running); and in left ventricular peak systolic pressure (-13% standing, -21% running); and rises in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (+4.5 mmHg standing, +6.3 mmHg running). Cardiac output was unchanged by occlusions at rest but fell (-18%) during occlusions while the dogs were running. Propranolol reduced absolute levels of cardiac performance during exercise occlusions but had no effect at rest. Inotropic agents with ischemia had some effects at rest but did not alter exercise hemodynamics. It is concluded that integrated left ventricular function during ischemia is not impaired by exercise, probably because of beta-adrenergic stimulation of nonischemic myocardium.