Abstract
The influence of hypertonic mannitol on regional myocardial blood flow and ventricular performance was studied during acute myocardial ischemia in awake, unsedated and in anesthesized dogs and after myocardial infarction in awake unsedated dogs. Regional myocardial blood flow was measured with radioactive microspheres. Generalized increases in regional myocardial blood flow occurred after mannitol in all of the different animal models studied. The increases in coronary blood flow after mannitol were just as impressive in the nonischemic regions as in the ischemic portion of the left ventricle in all of the different models that were examined in this study. Improvement in regional myocardial blood flow to the ischemic area of the left ventricle after mannitol was associated with a reduction in ST segment elevation during acute myocardial ischemia in anesthetized dogs. The increases in regional myocardial flow after mannitol were also associated with increases in contractility, but the increases in flow appeared to be more impressive than the changes in contractility. The data obtained demonstrate that mannitol increases regional coronary blood flow to both ischemic and nonischemic myocardium in both anesthetized and awake, unsedated, intact dogs with acute and chronic myocardial ischemia and that mannitol reduces ST segment elevation during acute myocardial ischemia in anesthetized dogs. Thus the results suggest that under these circumstances the increases in regional myocardial blood flow after mannitol are of physiological importance in reducing the extent of myocardial injury. Since coronary blood flow increased to nonischemic regions the increases in regional myocardial flow demonstrated in this study after mannitol cannot be entirely explained by the mechanism of reduction in ischemic cell swelling.