Intake of 1 g/kg of ethanol did not impair myocardial contractility during isometric exercise in healthy volunteers, though it increased resting heart rate and decreased left ventricular dimensions.
Does acute intake of social amounts of alcohol impair myocardial contractility during isometric exercise in healthy volunteers?
Acute ingestion of small to moderate amounts of alcohol does not impair myocardial contractility in healthy individuals, even under afterload stress.
The aim of this study was to assess whether drinking social amounts of alcohol impairs myocardial contractility in normal humans. To that end, 17 healthy volunteers performed isometric handgrip exercise before and 60 minutes after an intake of 1 g/kg body weight of ethanol within 60 minutes. Left ventricular M-mode echocardiogram, systolic time intervals, and sphygmomanometric arterial blood pressure were recorded before and at the end of 4-min handgrip at 30% of maximum voluntary contraction. The blood ethanol concentration (mean +/- SD) was 24.4 +/- 2.0 mmol/liter. At rest, ethanol increased heart rate (p less than 0.05), and decreased left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (p less than 0.05), end-systolic diameter (p less than 0.01), and circumferential systolic wall stress (p less than 0.05). The indices of left ventricular performance were unchanged except for the maximum circumferential fiber shortening velocity which was increased after ethanol (p less than 0.001). The cardiac response to isometric exercise was similar before and after ethanol except that the handgrip-induced rise in systolic wall stress was smaller postingestion (p less than 0.05). This study does not support the view that drinking small to moderate amounts of alcohol brings about myocardial depression in normal humans. Although preload, afterload, and heart rate were altered by ethanol at rest, myocardial contractility was not impaired even during the afterload stress imposed by isometric exercise.
Kupari et al. (Tue,) conducted a other in Healthy volunteers (n=17). Ethanol vs. Baseline (before ethanol intake) was evaluated on Myocardial contractility and left ventricular dynamics. Intake of 1 g/kg of ethanol did not impair myocardial contractility during isometric exercise in healthy volunteers, though it increased resting heart rate and decreased left ventricular dimensions.