Increased ANF secretion after volume expansion is preserved in rats with heart failure

To examine whether the failing heart has reached a maximal capacity to increase plasma atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) concentration, the change in plasma immunoreactive ANF level due to acute blood volume expansion was determined in conscious rats with chronic heart failure. Varying degrees of myocardial infarction and thus heart failure were induced by coronary artery ligation 3 wk before study. Compared with controls, infarcted rats had decreases in mean arterial pressure (-10 mmHg, P less than 0.01), cardiac index (-27%, P less than 0.001), renal blood flow (-35%, P less than 0.01), and peak left ventricle-developed pressure after aortic occlusion (an index of pressure generating ability; -15%, P less than 0.01), and increases in central venous pressure (+1.7 mmHg, P less than 0.01), left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (+10 mmHg, P less than 0.001), total peripheral resistance (+28%, P less than 0.01), and plasma ANF level (752 +/- 109 vs. 244 +/- 33 pg/ml, P less than 0.001). Plasma ANF was correlated with infarct size, cardiac filling pressures, and left ventricle pressure-generating ability. At 5 min after 25% blood volume expansion, plasma ANF in rats with heart failure increased by 2,281 +/- 345 pg/ml; the magnitude of the changes in circulating ANF and hemodynamic measurements was similar in controls. The results suggest that plasma ANF level can be used as a reliable index of the severity of heart failure, and that the capacity to increase plasma ANF concentration after acute volume expansion is preserved in rats with heart failure. There was no evidence of a relative deficiency of circulating ANF in this model of heart failure.