Sensitivities of cardiac O2 consumption and contractility to catecholamines in dogs

We studied the effects of plasma catecholamines from the adrenal gland on systolic pressure-volume area (PVA)-independent O2 consumption (VO2) and contractility index (Emax) in the left ventricle of excised cross-circulated dog hearts. PVA is a measure of the total mechanical energy of contraction. Under baseline conditions, the PVA-independent VO2 correlated with plasma catecholamine level in the hearts (r = 0.84). Plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine levels increased gradually from 0.3 and 0.4 ng/ml to 10.3 and 2.7 ng/ml on average during adrenal sympathetic nerve stimulation of support dogs. Simultaneously, Emax and PVA-independent VO2 increased by 240 +/- 127 (SD) and 75 +/- 24%. Although their increases were monotonic in a given heart, their sensitivities to catecholamines were considerably variable among hearts. However, these two sensitivities were correlated (r = 0.96) with each other in the hearts, and the interheart variation of the sensitivity of the PVA-independent VO2 to Emax (i.e., oxygen cost of Emax) was smaller. We conclude that the oxygen cost of Emax is less variable among hearts despite large interheart variations of Emax and VO2 responses to plasma catecholamines.