Effect of systemic blood pressure on microcollateral circulation evaluated by real-time contrast echocardiography.
BACKGROUND
In acute myocardial infarction, residual collateral-derived myocardial blood flow (CBF) within the ischemic area is one of the major determinants of infarct size. Management of systemic blood pressure (sBP) related to maintain collateral circulation is still difficult. The aim of this study was to reveal the influence of sBP on the rescue of area at risk by collateral circulation.


METHODS
Real-time myocardial contrast echocardiography just after the onset of complete occlusion of the left circumflex coronary artery was performed in collateral-rich open-chest dogs. The video intensity of the ischemic area was evaluated during the occlusion and the CBF (A x beta) was calculated from a replenishment curve: y = A (1 - e(-beta t)). To analyze the effect of sBP on the collateral circulation, sBP was altered by infusion of nitroglycerin or etilefrine hydrochloride. To evaluate the defect size (%DS), every end-systolic myocardial contrast echocardiography image after left circumflex coronary artery occlusion was converted into binary images using custom offline software.


RESULTS
The %DS increased and CBF slightly decreased at low sBP. The %DS decreased and CBF increased at high sBP. At excessively high sBP, %DS increased and CBF decreased again.


CONCLUSIONS
Real-time myocardial contrast echocardiography, which is a useful noninvasive method to evaluate the collateral perfusion quantitatively, has a crucial role in the decision of patient treatment and management strategy of acute myocardial infarction.
Ishikura
Fuminobu
F
School of Allied Health Sciences, Osaka University, Faculty of Medicine, Osaka, Japan. ishikura@sahs.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
Miki
Ayako
A
Iwata
Akiko
A
Toshida
Tsutomu
T
Shakudo
Masahiro
M
Asanuma
Toshihiko
T
Kitakaze
Masafumi
M
Shinozaki
Yoshiro
Y
Mori
Hidezo
H
Beppu
Shintaro
S
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D003097:Collateral Circulation / Q000187:drug effects; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000187:drug effects; D004285:Dogs; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005039:Etilefrine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000187:drug effects; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000187:drug effects; D005996:Nitroglycerin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014665:Vasodilator Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*
D014665:Vasodilator Agents; D005996:Nitroglycerin; D005039:Etilefrine