W: Reversibly injured, postischemic canine myocardium retains normal contractile reserve. Circ Res 1987;61:834-846 KEY WORDS • sonomicrometer • myocardial blood flow • coronary occlusion • reperfusion injury • neutrophil function by guest on April 24, 201

Transient coronary occlusion (15 minutes) does not result in irreversible myocardial injury but is associated with a depression of contractile function sustained for several hours to days ("stunned myocardium"). The defect in the contractile process responsible for this phenomenon has been suggested to be causally related to a reduced energetic state, altered excitation or excitation-contraction coupling, or damaged contractile filaments. The purpose of this study was to attempt to exclude one or more of these hypotheses by evaluating the contractile reserve of reperfused myocardium. Regional subendocardial segment function was measured (sonomicrometry) in a control region and in an area (treatment region) perfused by a carotid artery to anterior descending coronary artery bypass in 13 chloralose-anesthetized dogs. Dose-response curves were constructed from changes in segment shortening (%SS) in response to intracoronary calcium infusion before ischemia and following 5 or 15 minutes of occlusion and reperfusion (30 minutes). Calcium infusion before ischemia resulted in dose-dependent increases in %SS in the treatment area to a maximum value of 36.6 % from a preinfusion value of 25.5 % (p<0.01), in the absence of changes in control region shortening (23.7%). After 15 minutes of occlusion and reperfusion, treatment area %SS had fallen to a depressed but stable level (46 % of preischemic values; p<0.01). Subsequent calcium infusion at the same doses as in th