Intracoronary magnesium is not protective against acute reperfusion injury in the regional ischaemic‐reperfused dog heart

Intravenous magnesium lowers mortality in patients with suspected myocardial infarction. We tested the hypothesis that the protective effect may be due to a direct, local influence of magnesium on myocardial reperfusion injury in a dog model of ischaemia/reperfusion. Ten anaesthetized open chest dogs underwent 1 h of left anterior descending artery (LAD) occlusion and 6 h of reperfusion. The animals received intracoronary (i.c.) magnesium aspartate (Mg, n = 5) or vehicle infusion (n = 5) for the first hour of reperfusion. Mg infusion was adapted to actual LAD flow (ultrasonic flow probe) to increase regional plasma concentration by 4 mmol L-1. Regional myocardial function was measured as percent systolic wall thickening (sWTh, sonomicrometry). Intracoronary Mg increased LAD flow during application (at 15 min reperfusion; Mg, 194 +/- 44 (mean +/- SD); control, 116 +/- 41 mL min-1 100 g-1, P < 0.01). sWTh decreased during coronary occlusion from 14.3 +/- 7.1% to -4.7 +/- 2.7% in the control group and from 14.8 +/- 2.5% to -4.1 +/- 3.1% in the Mg group. Throughout the reperfusion period wall function remained depressed in both groups to a similar degree (control, -3.5 +/- 1.8%; Mg, -3.0 +/- 1.9% at 6 h reperfusion). Global haemodynamics were not different. Infarct size after 6 h reperfusion (TTC staining) was similar in both groups (Mg, 20.6 +/- 5.0; control, 24.4 +/- 8.7% of area at risk). Regional magnesium application (i.c.) to post-ischaemic reperfused myocardium had no influence on infarct size or post-ischaemic regional wall function in this model.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)