Abnormal myocardial fluid retention as an early manifestation of ischemic injury.

Fifty-seven isolated, blood perfused, continuously weighed canine hearts have been utilized to study the development of abnormal myocardial fluid retention during early myocardial ischemic injury. Inflatable balloon catheters were positioned around the left anterior descending coronary arteries (LAD) of 54 hearts or the proximal left circumflex coronary arteries of three hearts for study of the following intervals of coronary occlusion: a) 10 minutes followed by 20 minutes of reflow, b) 40 minutes followed by either no reflow or by 20 minutes of reflow, and c) 60 minutes without reflow. After 60 minutes of fixed coronary occlusion, histologic and ultrastructural examination revealed mild swelling of many ischemic cardiac muscle cells in the absence of interstitial edema, cardiac weight gain, and obvious structural defects in cell membrane integrity. After 40 minutes of coronary occlusion and 20 minutes of reflow, significant cardiac weight gain occurred in association with characteristic alterations in the ischemic region, including widespread interstitial edema and focal vascular congestion and hemorrhage and swelling of cardiac muscle cells. Focal structural defects in cell membrane integrity were also noted. The development of abnormal myocardial fluid retention after 40 minutes of LAD occlusion occurred in association with a significant reduction in sodium-potassium-ATPase activity in the ischemic area, but with no significant alteration in either creatine phosphokinase or citrate synthase activity in the same region. Despite the abnormal myocardial fluid retention in these hearts, it was possible pharmacologically to vasodilate coronary vessels with adenosine and nitroglycerin infusion to maintain a consistently high coronary flow following release of the coronary occlusion after 40 minutes and to even exceed initial hyperemic flow values following release of the occlusion when adenosine and nitroglycerin infusion was delayed until 15 minutes after reflow. Thus, the data indicate that impaired cell volume regulation and interstitial fluid accumulation and focal structural defects in cell membrane integrity are early manifestations of ischemic injury followed by reflow, but fail to establish a major role for the abnormal fluid retention in altering coronary blood flow prior to the development of extensive myocardial necrosis. In contrast, fixed coronary occlusion for 60 minutes results in mild intracellular swelling but no significant interstitial edema and no obvious structural defects in cell membrane integrity.