Regional changes in blood flow, extracellular potassium and conduction during myocardial ischemia and reperfusion

Objectives. We postulated that ventricular arrhythmias may arise from the heterogeneous washout of ischemic metabolites. Our objective was to investigate the distribution of extracellular potassium concentration ([K+]0) during myocardial ischemia and reperfusion and to correlate this distribution with regional differences in myocardial blood flow.