The intramyocardial vascular compartment is capable of volume expansion on the order of 20% of its normal volume when myocardial compression by ventricular systole is suspended.
The effect of cardiac relaxation on the intramyocardial blood volume was studied by measuring the integrated difference between arterial inflow and great cardiac venous outflow. In nine anesthetized goats, the left main coronary artery was perfused under constant pressure. The great cardiac vein was drained under pressure control. The venous flow signal was amplified so that the integrated intramyocardial blood volume was constant in the beating heart. With normal vasomotor tone, the mean change in vascular volume was 3.01 +/- 0.18 (SE) ml/100 g left ventricle (LV); 67% of the volume change was achieved in 1.60 +/- 0.09 s. For the fully dilated bed (adenosine infusion), the values were 4.13 +/- 0.33 ml/100 g and 0.96 +/- 0.06 s, respectively. The volume change could be correlated with the venous pressure during cardiac arrest (Pvd) and the change in mean left ventricular pressure after cardiac arrest (r = 0.95). The correlation improved when data were selected for Pvd less than 6 mmHg to r = 0.98. We assumed that the change in vascular transmural pressure can be approximated as half the mean left ventricular pressure change. The intramyocardial vascular compliance was then estimated as 0.104 +/- 0.012 and 0.146 +/- 0.028 ml X mmHg-1 X 100 g-1 for control and adenosine conditions, respectively. The long time constants excluded the large epicardial veins as the site of volume change; they were much longer than the duration of diastole in the beating heart. We conclude that the intramyocardial vascular compartment is capable of volume expansion on the order of 20% of its normal volume when myocardial compression by ventricular systole is suspended.
Vergroesen et al. (Sat,) studied this question.