[The cardioprotective effect of verapamil in acute percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty].

Verapamil improved the ischemic tolerance of the myocardium in experiments in animals. Therefore, 20 patients were examined during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) of a proximal LAD stenosis in order to evaluate the ability of verapamil to improve the ischemic tolerance in man. Before the second dilatation, 1 mg verapamil was given intracoronarily to 10 patients, the other 10 patients received placebo ic. Before and after each of the three inflations, blood samples were obtained from the coronary sinus in five patients of each group to analyze the contents of lactate, pyruvate, and pH. Verapamil caused a significant prolongation of the inflation from 58 +/- 12 s to 83 +/- 20 s. This effect was persistent also during the following inflation (96 +/- 19 s). The onset of angina was delayed (p less than 0.05). ST-wave elevations and T-wave amplitudes were smaller after verapamil, in spite of the increased duration of inflation, as compared with the control group. The time until ST elevations of 0.1 mV occurred was increased from 17 +/- 3 s to 57 +/- 18 s (p less than 0.05). The increase in lactate in coronary sinus blood was less pronounced after verapamil (48% of control; p less than 0.05). Intracoronary verapamil before PTCA of the LAD improved the ischemic tolerance of the poststenotic myocardium significantly as evaluated by measurements of electrocardiographic and metabolic parameters. No side effects occurred during the injection of verapamil into the left coronary artery.