Vasopressin and the mature coronary collateral circulation.

In isolated vascular rings, we have shown that mature coronary collateral vessels are highly responsive to the vasoconstrictor effects of vasopressin. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of concentrations of vasopressin encountered in pathophysiologic states on the collateral circulation in vivo. We studied eight open-chest anesthetized dogs with mature coronary collateral vessels 3-6 months after placement of an ameroid constrictor on the left circumflex coronary artery. The left anterior descending coronary artery was perfused at constant pressure, and peripheral coronary pressure was monitored continuously throughout each experiment. At baseline and during intracoronary infusion of vasopressin, which resulted in concentrations ranging from 8 +/- 3 to 1,340 +/- 327 microM/ml, we measured regional myocardial perfusion with radiolabeled microspheres. At baseline, regional myocardial perfusion to the collateral-dependent myocardium and to the normally perfused myocardium was similar; however, during vasopressin infusion, collateral-dependent zone flow decreased by 49 +/- 14% whereas normal zone flow decreased by only 9 +/- 9% (p less than 0.0005, normal zone perfusion vs. collateral perfusion). Vasopressin increased transcollateral resistance by 242 +/- 95% above baseline but produced a more modest increase in normal zone resistance (15 +/- 10%). The subendocardial to subepicardial perfusion ratio increased by 28 +/- 12% in the normal zone in response to vasopressin but decreased by 18 +/- 11% in the collateral-dependent zone. These data show that mature coronary collateral vessels are responsive to the vasoconstrictor effects of vasopressin at concentrations encountered in various pathophysiologic states.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)