Assessment of the intrinsic contractile state within an area of myocardium

Afterload independent, inotropic state sensitive indices of regional function were sought in 31 canine hearts instrumented with piezoelectric crystals to depict trapezoidal areas in the left anterior descending and circumflex arterial beds. Control and postinterventional end-systolic pressure versus regional length and area relationships and regional stroke work versus end-diastolic length and area relationships were inscribed during incremental volume loading on right heart bypass. Hearts were randomized to undergo afterload variation with phenylephrine infusion, contractility augmentation by calcium chloride, or 20 minutes of ischemia in the region of the left anterior descending artery with 30 minutes of reperfusion. All relationships were linear before and after each intervention (mean r = 0.726 to 0.974). The slopes of each correlation were interpreted to quantify intrinsic regional contractility, and all were afterload insensitive (unaffected by phenylephrine). Regional stroke work versus end-diastolic area and length relationships were depressed 55% and 62%, respectively, after ischemia (p less than 0.001 each), whereas neither end-systolic pressure versus regional area nor regional length was significantly altered. Calcium chloride increased regional stroke work versus area 45% in both arterial beds, but significantly increased the other indices only in the left anterior descending and not the left circumflex region. Unlike previous studies of global contractility, correlation of end-systolic events alone did not reliably discriminate perturbations in regional function. The superiority of regional stroke work versus end-diastolic area may be due to incorporating pressure-area changes during the entire cardiac cycle and obviating variability owing to crystal orientation inexactly parallel to fiber shortening.