Regional myocardial function and metabolism during acute coronary artery occlusion.

Regional changes in myocardial function and oxidative metabolism during acute coronary artery occlusion were recorded spectrophotometrically by incorporating fiber optics in the isolated rat heart perfused by Langendorff's procedure. Oxygen saturation of myoglobin, reduction of cytochrome aa3, and the dynamic wall thickness of the left ventricle were continuously and concurrently measured from absorbancy increments at 581-592 nm, 605-630 nm, and 568-592 nm, respectively. In contrast to a gradual decrease in the extent of systolic wall thickening in anoxia, observed decreases in both the extent and the duration of systolic wall thickening and the appearance of a late systolic bulge occurred within 5 s after the onset of regional ischemia. After 10 s of both anoxia and regional ischemia, oxygen saturation of myoglobin decreased by 50%, but fluorescence of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide remained at aerobic level which indicated that mitochondrial oxidative energy production might still be maintained. Thus early and pronounced dysfunction of the ischemic region appeared to precede a substantial loss of ATP production.