[Myocardial blood flow and ventricular function in dependence on the size of myocardial infarct]

In eight dogs three branches of the left anterior descending coronary artery were occluded by successive ligations. Each time coronary flow reserve was measured by injecting dipyridamole (0.4 mg.kg-1). After an infarction of 13% of the left ventricle there was a significant decrease of Vmax and dp/dtmax (p less than 0.05). Measurements of regional myocardial blood flow detected an infarction of 5% of the left ventricle, whereas the total myocardial blood flow was reduced significantly when 17% of the left ventricle was infarcted.