Comparative assessment of regional left atrial perfusion by laser Doppler and radionuclide microsphere techniques

The aim was to study the relation between left atrial microcirculatory flux, using laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), and blood flow, using radiolabelled microspheres (MS).

Studies were done in five anaesthetised dogs. LDF probes were sewn to the appendage and body of the left atrium. Radionuclide spheres (15 microns) were used to quantitate blood flow at baseline, and during atrial pacing at 3.5 Hz, atrial fibrillation, and intravenous adenosine infusion (1 mg.kg-1 x min-1).

In the left atrial body, both MS and LDF perfusion increased significantly during pacing and adenosine infusion; only LDF registered significant increases during atrial fibrillation. In the left atrial appendage, MS flow failed to increase significantly with any intervention and LDF perfusion increased significantly only during atrial fibrillation. There was a significant but weak correlation (r = 0.36, p < 0.05) between LDF and MS when data from all sample sites (n = 40) were compared, but good correlation when only baseline and pacing data were compared (r = 0.72, p = 0.0004, n = 20). In four additional dogs with heart failure [mean left atrial pressure 25.3(SD 7.4) mm Hg] produced by three weeks of rapid right ventricular pacing, flux values at baseline were increased significantly compared to control dogs and the responses registered by LDF to pacing, atrial fibrillation, and adenosine infusion were attenuated markedly.

(1) Microcirculatory flux detected by LDF can identify the direction, and to a lesser extent, the magnitude of changes in regional atrial perfusion; and (2) LDF may be useful in identifying abnormalities of vasodilator reserve that accompany chronic left atrial myocardial dysfunction.