Heterogeneous effects of nitroglycerin on the conductance and resistance coronary arterial vasculature

This study assessed the effects of nitroglycerin (NTG) on epicardial conductance and blood flow regulatory vessels over a wide dose range (10(-10) to 10(-6) mol NTG) in chronically instrumented awake mongrel dogs. NTG bolus injection caused dose-dependent dilation of both conductance and blood flow regulatory vessels. The dose-response curves for blood flow were shifted markedly to the right of the response of conductance vessels so that the proximal vessels had reached 50% of their maximum vasodilation before significant increases in blood flow. The calculated doses for half-maximal vasodilation were 2.8 x 10(-8) and 7.8 x 10(-7) mol for conductance and blood flow, respectively, indicating an approximately 39 times greater sensitivity of the proximal vessels to NTG. NTG had a striking dose-dependent effect on the duration of vasodilation of conductance vessels but did not have a dose-dependent duration effect on coronary blood flow. Although acetylcholine demonstrated a dose-dependent response effect on the conductance vessels similar to NTG, the conductance and resistance vessels demonstrated the same sensitivity to acetylcholine, supporting the view that differences in the mechanics of vasodilation of the two vessel segments did not account for the differential sensitivities to NTG.