The effect of vasoactive agents on the left ventricular end-systolic pressure-volume relation in closed-chest dogs

The left ventricular end-systolic pressure-volume relation has received intense interest as a relatively load-insensitive measure of cardiac performance. In clinical studies, pharmacologic manipulation of blood pressure has been used to determine this relation. Since previous studies have shown that acute changes in the resistance and impedance of the arterial circulation influence the left ventricular end-systolic pressure-volume relation, the use of vasoactive drugs in its determination may affect the results achieved. This study was undertaken to determine whether clinically used vasoactive drugs influence the left ventricular end-systolic pressure-volume relation. Sixteen dogs were previously instrumented with micromanometer pressure transducers and three sets of piezoelectric crystals to permit determination of left ventricular pressure and volume. The dogs were studied after autonomic blockade and sedation. End-systolic pressure-volume relations were generated by caval occlusion at control levels of blood pressure, after infusion of a vasopressor (methoxamine, n = 6; angiotensin II, n = 10), and then after infusion of nitroprusside. A composite end-systolic pressure-volume relation was also constructed with the use of control, vasopressor, and vasodilator points in each dog. Angiotensin II resulted in a leftward shift in the relation (Vo decreased from 14.32 +/- 7.3 to 8.04 +/- 10.4 ml, p less than .05) with no significant effect on slope. Methoxamine shifted the relation to the left (Vo decreased from 13.98 +/- 8.74 to -0.47 +/- 12.06 ml, p less than .05) and also reduced the slope (5.41 +/- 3.09 vs 8.28 +/- 3.94 mm Hg/ml, p less than .05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)