The distribution of functional impairment across the lateral border of acutely ischemic myocardium

To evaluate the degree and lateral extent of dysfunction in nonischemic myocardium adjacent to ischemic muscle, we measured systolic wall thickening with sonomicrometers during circumflex coronary occlusion in 12 anesthetized, open-chest dogs. The locations of the wall thickness measurements relative to the perfusion boundary were determined with myocardial blood flow (microspheres) maps constructed from multiple, small tissue samples. Five minutes after circumflex occlusion, systolic wall thickening in the central ischemic zone decreased from 3.00 +/- 0.61 (mean +/- SD) mm to -0.61 +/- 0.36 mm (P less than 0.01). In nonischemic myocardium greater than 10 mm from the perfusion boundary, systolic wall thickening increased from 2.56 +/- 0.57 to 3.24 +/- 0.72 mm (P less than 0.01). In nonischemic myocardium within 10 mm of the perfusion boundary, systolic wall thickening was slightly but significantly reduced compared with control (2.72 +/- 0.80 to 2.44 +/- 0.79 mm, P less than 0.05), supporting the concept of regional dysfunction in nonischemic myocardium at the lateral borders of an ischemic area. Sigmoid curves were fitted to the data to model changes in wall thickening as a continuous function of distance from the perfusion boundary. This allowed estimation of the extent of dysfunction into nonischemic myocardium which averaged less than 8 mm (approximately 30 degrees of endocardial circumference) at one border. The level of functional impairment in this zone was relatively modest, and systolic wall thickening in the immediate border area was reduced more than 50% from control only in tissue characterized by a blood supply of mixed ischemic and nonischemic origin. We conclude that a functional border zone exists lateral to an acutely ischemic area, but measurement of regional function produces relatively small exaggeration of the size of the acutely ischemic zone if severe reduction in mechanical performance is used to define the extent of the ischemic area.