Ineffectiveness of methylprednisolone to reduce infarct size in experimental coronary occlusion.

Two medium-sized branches of the left coronary artery were prepared in each of 10 anesthetized open chest dogs for later occlusion. The first artery was occluded during 90 minutes and reperfused thereafter. This occlusion produced the control infarct. Methylprednisolone (50 mg/kg i.v.) was injected and the second artery was occluded also for 90 minutes and reperfused thereafter. Both infarcts were made visible by staining left ventricular rings with p-nitrobluetetrazolium. Infarct size was compared with the size of the perfusion area, which we obtained from the postmortem angiogram. Both infarcts were equal in size and comprised 50% of the area of perfusion of the occluded artery. Methylprednisolone in a single high dose given prophylactically did not influence infarct size nor any of the measured parameters.