Laser Doppler flowmetry for assessment of myocardial microperfusion in the beating rat heart

Although laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) is widely used for measuring microperfusion, it is rarely used to measure coronary microcirculation. The present in vivo study investigated the use of LDF to measure myocardial microperfusion in beating rat hearts. Ascending aortic flow and other hemodynamic parameters were simultaneously recorded. A needle probe with a holder was adhered to the epicardium of the left ventricular myocardium close to the left anterior descending coronary artery in an anaesthetized open-chest rat. Myocardial microperfusion was measured in response to bolus intravenous administration of both two representative vasodilators (captopril and nifedipine) and a vasoconstrictor (pituitrin). Myocardial microperfusion was found to be predominately diastolic, and in an opposing phase to the ascending aortic flow. Captopril (5 or 10 mg/kg) increased the initial myocardial microperfusion phase. Nifedipine at 75 microg/kg caused a sustained myocardial microperfusion elevation with a peak increase of 7.1+/-1.1%, but this was not observed using 150 microg/kg nifedipine. Both drugs caused an increase in the cardiac index. In contrast, myocardial microperfusion decreased (28.7+/-0.1% maximum decrease) in response to 1 IU/kg pituitrin. In conclusion, LDF provided a means of assessing myocardial microperfusion in beating rat hearts, and can be applied to evaluate the coronary microcirculation response to drugs.