Metabolic differences between hearts of patients with aortic valve disease and hearts of patients with ischaemic disease.

The hypertrophic hearts of patients with aortic valve disease are likely to have metabolic demands different from hearts with ischaemic disease. In this study we measured the myocardial concentration of ATP, ADP, lactate and 16 different amino acids in left ventricular biopsies collected from patients with aortic valve disease and from patients with ischaemic heart disease. Compared to hearts with ischaemic disease, hypertrophic hearts had significantly higher concentrations of ATP, but lower concentrations of lactate, branched-chain amino acids and alanine. These differences have important implications for energy metabolism and protein turnover in the two pathologies.