Changes in left ventricular diastolic function in coronary artery disease with and without angina pectoris assessed from exercise ventriculography.

In 11 normals and 43 patients with coronary artery disease left ventricular (LV) diastolic pressure-volume (P-V) curves were obtained from biplane ventriculograms and simultaneous high fidelity pressure measurements. During exercise ventriculography 20 patients had angina pectoris (group B), and 16 patients were asymptomatic (group A). At rest there were no akinetic segments in 28 patients (group C), and an akinetic segment was found in 15 (group D). With different total work loads (951 +/- 134 and 2100 +/- 245 kpm in groups B and A), LV minimal and end-diastolic pressures and corresponding ventricular volumes increased to a similar extent in patients with and without angina during exercise ventriculography. With comparable work loads (1,296 +/- 221 and 1,494 +/- 195 kpm in groups C and D) the mean increase in diastolic pressure and volume was larger in group D, which corresponded to the more depressed LV resting function.