Improvement of ischemic myocardial dysfunction by nisoldipine.

We examined the cardioprotective effect of nisoldipine against myocardial dysfunction during ischemia and reperfusion in Langendorff perfused rabbit hearts. Nisoldipine was administered to the hearts before 60 minutes of global ischemia. This agent inhibited the increase of end-diastolic pressure during ischemia and also improved the recovery of left ventricular developed pressure and coronary flow during reperfusion in a concentration-dependent manner. The maximal cardioprotective effect was observed in 10(-8) M nisoldipine. The beneficial effect was associated with an increase of coronary flow during reperfusion. Therefore, both the nisoldipine-increased coronary flow during reperfusion and the inhibition of ischemic contracture by nisoldipine seem to play a crucial role in improving myocardial dysfunction of ischemic-reperfused hearts.