Atherosclerosis influences the vasomotor response of epicardial coronary arteries to exercise.

21 patients referred for diagnostic cardiac catheterization to assess the extent of coronary artery disease. Divided into Group I (smooth vessels, n=6), Group II (minimal disease, n=4), and Group III (advanced disease, n=11). Excluded: unstable angina, Prinzmetal's variant angina, diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction within 3 months, or congestive heart failure.

Supine bicycle exercise during quantitative coronary angiography. A subset of 6 patients also received serial 2-minute intracoronary infusions of acetylcholine before exercise.

Baseline measurements before exercise (within-patient comparison) and comparison of responses between smooth, irregular, and stenotic vessel segments.

Vasomotion (percent change in diameter) of epicardial coronary artery segments during exercise.surrogate