Persistence of myocardial injury following brief periods of coronary occlusion

Abstract

Transient (20 min) occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery in open-chest anaesthetized dogs caused immediate aneurysmal bulging of the ischaemic segment, which preceded epicardial ST-segment elevation. Reperfusion after 20 min restored epicardial electrograms to normal, whereas mechanical dysfunction persisted for at least 45 min thereafter. The study shows that there is temporal disparity between electrical and mechanical events both at the inception of myocardial ischaemia and during recovery from transient myocardial ischaemia.