Coronary flow regulation in patients with ischemic heart disease: release of purines and prostacyclin and the effect of inhibitors of prostaglandin formation.

The present investigation was undertaken to study cardiac release of adenosine and prostacyclin (prostaglandin [PG] I2) in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD), and to assess coronary vascular resistance before and after inhibition of synthesis in such patients. In 48 patients with IHD, arterial and coronary sinus blood samples were taken at rest, during atrial pacing to angina, and after pacing. Levels of purines were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography and the PGI2 metabolite 6-keto-PGF1 alpha was measured with radioimmunoassay. Coronary sinus blood flow was determined with retrograde continuous thermodilution before and after oral administration of indomethacin, aspirin, naproxen, or ibuprofen. Atrial pacing induced myocardial ischemia, as evidenced by typical chest pain and arrested lactate extraction. Adenosine was extracted at rest, but during ischemia there was a significant release of its metabolite hypoxanthine, indicating increased myocardial breakdown of high-energy adenine nucleotides. Arterial and coronary sinus concentrations of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha were low and no significant differences between them were found. After administration of the PG-synthesis inhibitor indomethacin, coronary vascular resistance was elevated, as was the cardiac oxygen extraction. The three other PG-synthesis inhibitors (aspirin, naproxen, and ibuprofen) did not, however, induce any change in coronary vascular resistance or in the cardiac extraction of oxygen. On the basis of these data we suggest that in patients with IHD cardiac ischemia results in increased myocardial production and release of purines, cardiac ischemia does not elicit any detectable increase in coronary production of prostacyclin, and the increased coronary resistance induced by indomethacin does not reflect the involvement of locally formed PG in the maintenance of coronary flow, but is rather a direct effect of the drug.