[Metabolic disorders generated by myocardial ischemia: implication of oxygen free radicals]

A process of myocardial ischemia is developed when there is an imbalance between the tissues needs and the supply in coronary arterial blood. This imbalance causes rapidly a cascade of biochemical and metabolic events which, when the ischemia is particularly severe and extended, may lead, at the end, to tissue necrosis. However, the factors responsible for cellular death are still not precisely known and it seems, from the recent experimental results, that the exacerbated production of free radicals derived from oxygen could be one of the elements implicated in the initiation of the necrotic process. This article proposes to describe the various disturbances of the myocardial metabolism induced by the ischemic process and to consider the eventual role of the oxygen free radicals in the development of these alterations.