The effects of nitroglycerin on regional myocardial contractile dysfunction produced by treadmill exercise or isoprenaline stimulation in dogs.

1. To compare different methods of cardiac stress testing that are clinically applied in the management of coronary heart disease, 2 groups of dogs each were chronically instrumented and subjected to treadmill exercise or isoprenaline infusion in the presence of coronary stenosis. 2. It was of interest to determine differences in haemodynamic and regional myocardial contractile parameters, the response to antianginal therapy (nitroglycerin 15 micrograms kg-1 15 min-1, i.v.), and, in particular, whether this response differed according to the mode of cardiac stimulation, i.e. treadmill exercise or isoprenaline infusion. 3. After stenosis of the circumflex branch of the left coronary artery which affected resting myocardial function only minimally, treadmill exercise or isoprenaline infusion induced transient regional contractile dysfunction. Heart rate, arterial blood pressure, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and left ventricular dp/dtmax were registered and myocardial oxygen demand was calculated. Regional contractile performance was assessed by ultrasonic distance measurement in the underperfused and in a normally perfused area. 4. Treadmill exercise led to an increase in systolic arterial and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure. In contrast, isoprenaline-induced stimulation led to a decrease in diastolic arterial and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure. Regional contractile function in the critically underperfused area showed a deterioration during both modes of stress. Nitroglycerin completely abolished stress-induced contractile dysfunction only in the group where treadmill exercise was employed for stimulation. 5. The inability of nitroglycerin to prevent myocardial dysfunction in the isoprenaline group may be due to exhaustion of the arterial and/or venous vasodilator potency of nitroglycerin in the presence of adrenoceptor vasodilatation induced by isoprenaline. 6. These findings indicate that clinical antianginal drug testing and the evaluation of the course of disease in patients with coronary heart disease may be highly dependent on the test method chosen.