Skip Navigation

Cardiovascular Research 2003 57(2):302-311; doi:10.1016/S0008-6363(02)00716-2
© 2003 by European Society of Cardiology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Camici, P. G
Right arrow Articles by Rimoldi, O. E
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Camici, P. G
Right arrow Articles by Rimoldi, O. E
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Copyright © 2003, European Society of Cardiology

Myocardial blood flow in patients with hibernating myocardium

Paolo G Camici* and Ornella E Rimoldi

MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London W12 ONN, UK

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-208-383-3186; fax: +44-208-383-3742. paolo.camici{at}csc.mrc.ac.uk

The debate on whether resting myocardial blood flow (MBF) to hibernating myocardium is reduced or not has attracted a lot of interest and has contributed to stimulate new research on heart failure in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Positron emission tomography with oxygen-15 labeled water (H215O) or nitrogen-13 labeled ammonia (13NH3) has been used for the absolute quantification of regional MBF in human hibernating myocardium. When hibernating myocardium is properly identified, i.e. a dysfunctional segment subtended by a stenotic coronary artery that improves function upon reperfusion, the following conclusions can be reached based on the available literature: (a) in the majority of these studies resting MBF in hibernating myocardium is not different from either flow in remote tissue in the same patient or MBF in normal healthy volunteers; (b) a reduction in MBF of ~20% compared to MBF in remote myocardium or age matched normal subjects has been demonstrated in a minority of truly hibernating segments; (c) hibernating myocardium is characterized by a severely impaired coronary flow reserve which improves after revascularization in parallel with contractile function. Thus, the pathophysiology of hibernation in humans is more complex than initially postulated. The recent evidence that repetitive ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease can be cumulative and lead to more severe and prolonged stunning, lends further support to the hypothesis that, at least initially, stunning and hibernation are two facets of the same coin.

KEYWORDS Blood flow; Coronary circulation; Hibernation


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Circ. Res.Home page
O. Sorop, D. Merkus, V. J. de Beer, B. Houweling, A. Pistea, E. O. McFalls, F. Boomsma, H. M. van Beusekom, W. J. van der Giessen, E. VanBavel, et al.
Functional and Structural Adaptations of Coronary Microvessels Distal to a Chronic Coronary Artery Stenosis
Circ. Res., April 11, 2008; 102(7): 795 - 803.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.