POSTEXTRASYSTOLIC POTENTIATION DOES NOT DISTINGUISH ISCHEMIC FROM STUNNED MYOCARDIUM

Myocardial function is impaired by ischaemia, and it remains depressed during reperfusion following short periods of ischaemia (stunned myocardium). We tested whether ischaemic and reperfusion dysfunction, in particular the time course of its recovery, can be distinguished by postextrasystolic potentiation (PESP). In eight open-chest dogs, posterior systolic wall thickening (sonomicrometry) was reduced by graded occlusion of the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX) from 17.4 +/- 6.8% (SD) during control conditions to 10.7 +/- 1.3% (mild ischaemic dysfunction), 7.2 +/- 2.3% (moderate ischaemic dysfunction), 3.6 +/- 1.4% (severe ischaemic dysfunction), and -4.4 +/- 3.6% (complete coronary occlusion). Extra-systoles with constant prematurity and a fully compensated postextrasystolic interval were induced after at least 4 min steady-state ischaemia. After each ischaemic period full recovery of posterior systolic wall thickening was assured. During 8 h of reperfusion following a 15-min LCX occlusion, extrasystoles were induced when posterior systolic wall thickening was comparable to one degree of the preceding ischaemic dysfunction. The increases in posterior systolic wall thickening induced by PESP were 10.5 +/- 5.8% during control conditions, during ischaemia they were 11.5 +/- 3.5% (mild dysfunction), 12.3 +/- 4.6% (moderate dysfunction), 12.6 +/- 4.1% (severe dysfunction) and 10.4 +/- 4.4% (complete coronary occlusion), and during reperfusion they were 12.8 +/- 8.2% (severe dysfunction), 13.0 +/- 9.7% (moderate dysfunction) and 10.7 +/- 2.2% (mild dysfunction). These increments in systolic wall thickening as well as those in ejection thickening were not significantly different. PESP can thus not distinguish between ischaemic and reperfusion dysfunction nor between different degrees of myocardial dysfunction.