Cocaine: long-term administration depletes cardiac enzymes in the rat

Arterioles and myocytes of the cardiac ventricle were examined histochemically to determine their metabolic profiles in normal rats and in rats treated either acutely or chronically with cocaine. Following long-term, but not acute, cocaine administration, enzymes involved in both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism as well as in hexosemonophosphate shunt were greatly decreased. These data suggest that long-term usage of cocaine leads to severely impaired coronary metabolism.