[Prevention of myocardial damage during hemolytic anemia by antioxidants]

Structural and functional disorders of the heart muscle were studied in rats with phenylhydrazine-induced chronic hemolytic anemia, as was the possibility of their prevention with anti-oxidant Ionol, a lipid peroxidation inhibitor. Hemolytic anemia was shown to produce myocardial contractural damage, myocytolysis, fatty infiltration, small-focal necrosis, the so-called central lumpy decay phenomenon. These lesions are accompanied with depressed cardiac contractility. Although anti-oxidant Ionol, a lipid peroxidation inhibitor, administered to animals simultaneously with phenylhydrazine, does not prevent hemolytic anemia, it reduces twofold the number of lesion foci in the heart muscle and limits significantly the depression of cardiac contractility.