The effect of dipyridamole on the coronary hemodynamics in man

The effects of dipyridamole (Persantin) on the coronary blood flow (the great cardiac vein flow and coronary sinus ostial flow), the femoral arterial pressure, the coronary vascular resistance and the heart rate were measured continuously in man. The newly devised method of the continuous local thermodilution method enabled us to perform the exact measurement of the above mentioned variables in man. The increase of the coronary blood flow was seen definitely in the non-ischemic group and, therefore, the decrease in the coronary vascular resistance occurred in 30 sec and continued for more than 20 min. In the myocardial ischemic group, some patients showed the similar response to the non-ischemic group. However, some patients showed no increase of the flow, even though the coronary vascular resistance decreased in all cases in this group. The heart rate increased slightly in all cases.