Effects of Hyperoxia on Coronary Circulation in Patients with Peripheral Artery Diseases (PAD).

It is well-known that hyperoxia evokes different effects in patients with different dieaseas conditions. Studies from this lab and others have shown that hyperoxia is a potent coronary vasoconstrictor. Recently, we found that hyperoxia exaggerates systolic blood pressure (BP) response in patients with PAD. The aim of this study is to characterize the coronary circulatory effects of hyperoxia in PAD patients and healthy controls. We recruited 20 PAD patients (14M, 6F, 66 ± 6yrs), and 16 age-matched control subjects (10M, 6F, 65 ± 8yrs). The ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) in the most affected limbs of the patients was 0.58 ± 0.15, compared to the controls ABI of 1.04 ± 0.09. For the hyperoxia procedure the subjects breathed room air for three minutes and 100% oxygen for five minutes. BP and heart rate (HR) were monitored during baseline and hyperoxia. The rate pressure product (RPP), an index of myocardial oxygen consumption, was calculated as the product of systolic BP and HR. Transthoracic Coronary Echocardiography was used to record early and late peak coronary blood flow velocities (CBV1 and CBV2) in the left anterior descending artery. Early and late coronary vascular conductances (peak coronary blood velocity/diastolic blood pressure, CVC1 and CVC2) and coronary perfusion time fraction (CPTF, coronary perfusion time/R-R interval) were calculated. All data was compared across time and between groups using Repeated Measures Analyses of Variance (RMANOVA). RESULTS: At the baseline, RPP and coronary parameters (CBV2, CVC1, and CVC2) were higher in the PAD group compared to controls, also the PAD group showed significantly shorter CPTF. During hyperoxia, CBV1, CBV2, CVC1, and CVC2 decreased to varying degrees in both groups. However, no significant interactions were observed for RPP and all coronary parameters during hyperoxia between the groups (Table). Our findings suggest that the effect of hyperoxia on coronary circulation was not significantly different between PAD and healthy controls.