Background--After occlusion of an epicardial artery, left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is closely related to the volume of nonperfused myocardium (NPM). The impact of coronary microembolization (ME) on LV function, however, is larger relative to the total volume of NPM. We hypothesized that the total surface area (SA), rather than the total volume, of NPM is the major determinant of ME-induced LV dysfunction.

Methods and Results--We injected microspheres of 10-, 30-, or 100-µm diameter at each of 3 doses selectively into the left anterior descending coronary artery of 48 anesthetized pigs. Electron beam computed tomography (CT) was used to measure regional myocardial perfusion and changes in LV wall thickening (WT) and stroke volume (SV) after ME. At postmortem, a transmural "biopsy" of 1 to 2 cm³ of embolized myocardium was imaged by micro-CT, resulting in 3D images that provided volumes and SAs of the individual nonperfused foci. Additionally, in 9 pigs, creatine phosphokinase (CK) activity in embolized myocardium was measured as an index of washout of substances from the NPM. After ME, WT, SV, and CK washout were correlated more closely with the total SA (r=0.95, P<0.001; r=0.68, P<0.01; and r=0.88, P=0.01, respectively) than with the total NPM volume (r=0.59, P>0.05; 0.46, P>0.05; and r=0.69, P=0.04, respectively).

Conclusion--After coronary ME, LV dysfunction is more closely related to the total SA than to the total volume of nonperfused microregions in the myocardium.