ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIC CHANGES BEFORE ONSET OF VENTRICULAR TACHYARRHYTHMIAS DURING PARTIAL REPERFUSION FOLLOWING SEVERE MYOCARDIAL-ISCHEMIA IN DOGS

We examined the electrophysiologic changes before an onset of ventricular tachyarrhythmia during partial reperfusion following severe myocardial ischemia. The left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded and cannulated below the occluded portion in 26 dogs. To deplete collateral flow into the ischemic myocardium, retrograde blood flow was induced for 20 min. Then, in all dogs except 7 with ventricular fibrillation during retrograde blood flow, partial reperfusion through collateral flow into the ischemic myocardium was produced by stopping the retrograde flow. Within 2 min of partial reperfusion, sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) occurred in 7 dogs (group A) and non-sustained VT degenerating ventricular fibrillation occurred in 11 dogs (group B) of the remaining 12 dogs. In 6 dogs of group A and 9 of group B, epicardial conduction block appeared 5.0+/-2.2 and 3.5+/-1.3 min after ischemia. This was followed by fractionated electrical activities 15.2+/-3.2 and 11.7+/-3.3 min after ischemia. In group A, the fractionation had a slight change in configuration and a small increase in amplitude before the onset of VT during reperfusion; in group B, new deflections with large amplitude emerged before it. There was a significant difference in the amplitude (0.38+/-0.2 vs 0.67+/-0.3 mV, p < 0.025) between the 2 groups, although there was no significant difference in the amplitude (0.33+/-0.2 vs 0.23+/-0.1 mV) of the fractionation just before reperfusion. Our results show that slight improvement in fractionation induces sustained VT, and new deflections induce non-sustained VT degenerating ventricular fibrillation, even during partial reperfusion.