Correlation among water content, left ventricular function, coronary blood flow, and myocardial metabolism after hypothermic ischemic cardiac arrest.

Subendocardial ischemia is a common cause of death following ischemic cardiac arrest. We studied relationships among myocardial water content (WC), left ventricular function, coronary blood flow, and myocardial metabolism following ischemic cardiac arrest. Under cardiopulmonary bypass with hypothermia, 120 min of aortic occlusion was employed, and myocardial temperature was kept around 20 degrees C in 10 mongrel dogs. Left ventricular function (peak LVP, max dp/dt, LVEDP, LVSWI), coronary blood flow, myocardial enzymes (m-GOT, total CPK, MB-CPK), myocardial ATP and creatine phosphate (CP), and WC of the subendocardium of the left ventricle were measured. Data were obtained in the control state and immediately and 30 and 60 min after aortic unclamping. Significant negative correlations were obtained between WC and max dp/dt (r = -0.8384), coronary blood flow (r = -0.9928), ATP (r = -0.7038), and CP (r = -0.7835). Significant positive correlations were obtained between WC and LVEDP (r = 0.7525), m-GOT (r = 0.7638), and total CPK (r = 0.7079). These data suggest that myocardial edema results in depression of left ventricular function and metabolism.