Does resupplying oxygenated blood after relatively long periods of coronary occlusion modify the size of the zone of myocardial damage?
The text introduces the historical context and theoretical basis for investigating whether early reperfusion can modify the extent of myocardial damage following coronary occlusion.
CARDIAL INFARCTION can be reduced by diminishing cardiac oxygen requirements to marginal tissues surrounding an area of ischemia.' A possible alternative approach is to increase the supply of oxygen to the ischemic myocardium by reperfusion of the coronary arterial bed. The time beyond which myocardial damage becomes permanent after temporary coronary occlusion has been of interest to investigators for many years. In 1940, Blumgart2 described myocardial infarction resulting from 25 minutes of coronary occlusion, and later investigators reported that infarction usually occurred after 40 to 60 minutes of coronary occlusion in dogs.3 4 However, these studies were not focused on the question of whether or not the size of the zone of damage could be modified by resupplying oxygenated blood after relatively long periods of coronary occlusion.
John Ross (1974) studied this question.