Myocardial infarct size limitation. Principles, problems and possibilities.

The ability of pharmacological agents to reduce or limit the size of a myocardial infarct remains a highly controversial issue. This controversy had arisen as a consequence of inadequate models, methods of investigation, and indices of injury together with inappropriate interpretation of results. This paper discusses the principles of therapeutic infarct size limitation; the problems that have led to the controversy and the possibilities for tissue protection. In addition some new models are described together with recent studies which have been designed to reassess the possibility of pharmacological infarct size limitation in the light of our current knowledge.