Effects of coronary occlusion and norepinephrine on the myocardium of alloxan-diabetic dogs.

The aim of this study was to clarify the role of altered diabetic vascular reactivity in ischaemic heart disease. In diabetic condition, the necrotic area of myocardial infarction was significantly extended and myocardial oedema failed to develop after administration of norepinephrine 2 or 48 hours after ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. In metabolically healthy dogs the necrotic area of myocardial infarction was considerably smaller and an increase in myocardial water content, in myocardial thiocyanate space, in microscopically demonstrable permeability and in diastolic stiffness of left ventricular wall occurred when norepinephrine was administered 2 or 48 hours after coronary infarction. A close correlation was demonstrable between enhanced water content, thiocyanate space and diastolic stiffness in metabolically healthy animals, whereas in diabetic condition diastolic stiffness was primarily increased, and decreased when norepinephrine was infused after coronary ligation. Therefore, the altered vascular reactivity in diabetes is supposed to be responsible for the lack of oedema in the nonischaemic part of myocardium after norepinephrine infusion as well as for the size and severity of myocardial infarction.