Vladimir I. Vekshtein

Coronary vasomotor response to acetylcholine relates to risk factors for coronary artery disease.

In animals, acetylcholine dilates normal arteries and produces vasoconstriction in the presence of hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, or atherosclerosis, reflecting endothelial cell dysfunction. In patients with angiographically smooth coronary arteries, acetylcholine has been reported to produce both vasodilation and constriction. To test the hypothesis that the acetylcholine response relates to risk factors for coronary artery disease, acetylcholine 10(-8) to 10(-6) M was infused into the left anterior descending or circumflex coronary artery, and diameter changes were assessed with quantitative angiography in 34 patients with angiographically smooth coronary arteries. The acetylcholine response ranged from +37% (dilation) to -53% (constriction) at the peak acetylcholine dose. All coronary arteries dilated in response to nitroglycerin (26 +/- 17%), suggesting an abnormality of endothelial function in the patients with a constrictor response to acetylcholine. By multiple stepwise regression analysis, serum cholesterol (p less than 0.01), male gender (p less than 0.001), family history (p less than 0.05), age (p less than 0.05), cholesterol level (p less than 0.01), and total number of risk factors (p less than 0.0001) were independently associated with the acetylcholine response. Thus, coronary risk factors are associated with loss of endothelium-dependent vasodilation. The development of vasoconstriction is likely to be an abnormality of endothelial function that precedes atherosclerosis or an early marker of atherosclerosis not detectable by angiography.

The effect of atherosclerosis on the vasomotor response of coronary arteries to mental stress.

BACKGROUND Mental stress can cause angina in patients with coronary artery disease, but its effects on coronary vasomotion and blood flow are poorly understood. Because atherosclerosis affects the reactivity of coronary arteries to various stimuli, such as exercise, we postulated that atherosclerosis might also influence the vasomotor response of coronary arteries to mental stress. METHODS We studied 26 patients who performed mental arithmetic under stressful conditions during cardiac catheterization. (An additional four patients who did not perform the mental arithmetic served as controls.) Coronary segments were classified on the basis of angiographic findings as smooth, irregular, or stenosed. In 15 of the patients without focal stenoses in the left anterior descending artery, acetylcholine (10(-8) to 10(-6) mol per liter) was infused into the artery to test endothelium-dependent vasodilation. Changes in coronary blood flow were measured with an intracoronary Doppler catheter in these 15 patients. RESULTS The response of the coronary arteries to mental stress varied from 38 percent constriction to 29 percent dilation, whereas the change in coronary blood flow varied from a decrease of 48 percent to an increase of 42 percent. The direction and magnitude of the change in the coronary diameter were not predicted by the changes in the heart rate, blood pressure, or plasma norepinephrine level. Segments with stenoses (n = 7) were constricted by a mean (+/- SE) of 24 +/- 4 percent, and irregular segments (n = 20) by 9 +/- 3 percent, whereas smooth segments (n = 25) did not change significantly (dilation, 3 +/- 3 percent; P less than 0.0002). Coronary blood flow increased by 10 +/- 10 percent in smooth vessels, whereas the flow in irregular vessels decreased by 27 +/- 5 percent. The degree of constriction or dilation during mental stress correlated with the response to the infusions of acetylcholine (P less than 0.0003, r = 0.58). CONCLUSIONS Atherosclerosis disturbs the normal vasomotor response (no change or dilation) of large coronary arteries to mental stress; in patients with atherosclerosis paradoxical constriction occurs during mental stress, particularly at points of stenosis. This vasomotor response correlates with the extent of atherosclerosis in the artery and with the endothelium-dependent response to an infusion of acetylcholine. These data suggest that in atherosclerosis unopposed constriction caused by a local failure of endothelium-dependent dilation causes the coronary arteries to respond abnormally to mental stress.

Patients with evidence of coronary endothelial dysfunction as assessed by acetylcholine infusion demonstrate marked increase in sensitivity to constrictor effects of catecholamines.

Background Studies in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization have demonstrated that normal coronary arteries dilate and atherosclerotic arteries constrict in response to exercise and the cold pressor test, but the mechanisms are unknown. These vasomotor responses are mirrored by the vasomotor response to the endothelium-dependent agent acetylcholine. Exercise and the cold pressor test are associated with adrenergic stimulation and increased circulating catecholamines. The present study tested the hypothesis that coronary arteries with intact endothelial function are relatively resistant to the constrictor effects of catecholamines, whereas arteries with loss of endothelial function have increased sensitivity to catecholamine-induced constriction. Methods and Results The vasomotor function of the coronary endothelium was assessed by serial acetylcholine infusions (final concentration, 10−8 to 10−6 M) in 30 segments in 15 patients with minimal or no evidence of coronary atherosclerosis. The acetylcholine responses were related to the vasomotor response to intracoronary phenylephrine infusion (final concentration, 10−9 to 10−6 M) in the same segments. In the group of 18 segments that constricted to acetylcholine, there was a constrictor response to phenylephrine at an approximately 100-fold lower concentration than the group of 12 segments that did not constrict to acetylcholine. Conclusions These results suggest that the endothelial dysfunction that characterizes early and late atherosclerosis is associated with a marked increase in sensitivity to the constrictor effects of catecholamines. This finding may explain the constrictor responses of atherosclerotic coronary arteries to exercise and the cold pressor test. In stenotic coronary arteries this mechanism may play a role in the production of myocardial ischemia.

Loss of the coronary microvascular response to acetylcholine in cardiac transplant patients.

BackgroundThe coronary arteries of transplanted hearts frequently develop accelerated difflse arteriosclerosis. The effects of this disease on resistance vessel function are unknown Methods and ResultsTo investigate the integrity of endothelium-dependent small-vessel vasodilation in transplanted hearts, coronary blood flow (CBF) responses to the endothelium-dependent dilator acetylcholine (10−8 to 10−6 M) and the essentially endothelium-independent dilator adenosine (10−6 to 10−4M) were assessed in 40 studies of 29 transplant patients 1–3 years after transplantation and in seven nontransplanted controls. CBF was measured at constant arterial pressure with a Doppler catheter in the left anterior descending coronary artery. Controls, year 1 transplant patients, and year 2 transplant patients had similar increases in CBF in response to acetylcholine (232±40%, 200±41%, and 201±54%, respectively; p = NS), whereas year 3 transplant patients had increased CBF of only 100±39%o (p < 0.05 versus controls). An index of the proportion of CBF reserve attributable to endothelium-dependent dilation was obtained by normalizing each patients peak acetylcholine flow response by the peak adenosine flow response. In patients receiving both acetylcholine and adenosine, endothelium-dependent flow responses declined over time [57±9% in controls, 56±10% for year 1, 47±12% for year 2, and 29±9% for year 3 (p < 0.05 versus controls)]. An increased mean cyclosporine level (range, 99–261 ng/ml) (r = 0.67, p = 0.004) and increased transplant recipient age (range, 20–63 years) (r = 0.51, p = 0.004) predicted a preserved endothelium-dependent microvascular response. ConclusionsThus, microvascular endothelium-dependent dilation deteriorates over time in the transplanted heart, which may reflect underlying graft arteriosclerosis and contribute to ischemic damage of the myocardium.

Coronary vasospasm in humans: the role of atherosclerosis and of impaired endothelial vasodilator function

The traditional view that coronary stenoses cause myocardial ischemia by limiting increases in blood flow is now thought to be incomplete. Convincing evidence has accumulated that coronary narrowings play an active role in causing ischemia by intermittently interfering with coronary blood flow, not only among patients with the rare Prinzmetal’s variant angina, but also in nearly all patients with unstable and stable forms of angina pectoris (1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 13, 31). Studies of Chierchia and colleagues (2) in patients with unstable angina demonstrated a fall in coronary sinus oxygen saturation which could not be explained by a simultaneous increase in myocardial oxygen demand. Selwyn (1981) used radionuclides to monitor myocardial perfusion in patients with stable angina during rapid atrial pacing and found a net fall in myocardial blood flow in regions distal to coronary stenosis. More recently, positron emission tomography was used to assess changes in regional myocardial perfusion in patients with stable angina using rubidium-82. These studies also demonstrated decreases in regional blood flow which accompanied ischemia triggered by exercise, cold pressor stimulation or mental stress (6, 7). Ganz and colleagues (13) in patients with unstable angina directly measured coronary stenosis resistance by simultaneously determing pressure gradients and blood flow across moderately severe coronary narrowings, and they demonstrated increases in stenosis resistance both preceding and at the onset of episodes of ischemia.

Coronary atherosclerosis is associated with left ventricular dysfunction and dilatation in aortic stenosis.

Patients with aortic stenosis develop widely variable patterns of left ventricular hypertrophy and dysfunction. We postulated that coronary atherosclerosis (CAD) may be associated with impaired left ventricular function and chamber dilatation in patients with aortic stenosis. Left ventricular mass and volumes were quantified from two-dimensional echocardiography and correlated with coronary angiography in 78 patients with severe aortic stenosis and no previous myocardial infarction or regional wall motion abnormalities. Eighteen patients (group 1) had smooth coronary arteries, 25 patients had irregular coronary arteries with 50% or less stenosis (group 2), and 35 patients had obstructive CAD (group 3). Even though the calculated valve area was similar in all three study groups, group 1 patients had higher values for ejection fraction (65 +/- 9%, 51 +/- 17%, and 48 +/- 13%; p = 0.0002), systolic mass-to-volume ratio (9.2 +/- 3.9, 5.6 +/- 2.8, and 5.2 +/- 2.2; p = 0.0001), and cardiac index (2.9 +/- 0.7, 2.5 +/- 0.7, and 2.3 +/- 0.6 l/min.min2; p = 0.015) than patients in groups 2 and 3, respectively (mean +/- SD). Mean circumferential wall stress was inversely related to severity of CAD. Multivariate analysis showed that CAD is an independent predictor of ejection fraction and mass-to-volume ratio in this group of patients. Thus, in an elderly population with severe aortic stenosis, patients with both obstructive and nonobstructive CAD have an increased incidence of left ventricular enlargement and systolic dysfunction.

Estimation of mitral valve area from regression analysis of the pressure gradient in mitral stenosis

Estimation of mitral valve area (MVA) in the cardiac catheterization laboratory is prone to pitfalls because of the time required for calculations and inaccuracies in the measurement of cardiac output. Because the rate of decrease in the mitral gradient directly correlates with the severity of mitral stenosis, an on-line estimate of MVA at the time of catheterization may be possible with regression analysis of digitized pressure recordings. A total of 61 comparisons of mitral gradient measurements and MVA were obtained in 37 patients at diagnostic catheterization and in 24 patients after balloon mitral valvotomy. Linear and nonlinear regression parameters yielded pressure half-time values and empiric constants similar to those used in Doppler echocardiography for estimation of MVA. The correlations derived from linear analysis were as good as those obtained from nonlinear analysis: from linear analysis, MVAregression = 0.79.MVAGorlin -0.03; r2 = 0.64, p = 0.0001; and from double exponential analysis, MVAregression = 0.86.MVAGorlin -0.07; r2 = 0.74; p = 0.0001. The correlations were not significantly affected by the presence of mild to moderate mitral regurgitation or whether they were obtained after balloon valvotomy. In summary, linear regression analysis yields accurate estimates of MVA despite the theoretical superiority of nonlinear methods. On-line digital analysis of mitral gradient tracings may thus be useful at the time of diagnostic cardiac catheterization or balloon mitral valvotomy to assess the severity of mitral stenosis and the response to interventions.