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Function of isolated hearts from septic, saline-infused, and septic, alcohol-infused rats.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether hearts that demonstrate depressed myocardial reserves as a result of sustained hypermetabolic sepsis would show a potentiation of the dysfunction after an infusion of high doses of alcohol. We have previously shown that myocardial depression is present in hearts removed from hypermetabolic septic rats. Acute alcohol administration has also been shown to have a negative inotropic effect on the heart. In this study, myocardial function was assessed under in vitro conditions in which preload could be varied and aortic outflow resistance controlled and thus heart function could be determined under both low and high workloads. The alcohol-infused group increased cardiac performance as a function of increasing preload similarly to the controls. Heart rate, however, was significantly elevated compared with control. Isolated hearts from septic, saline-infused animals showed depressed cardiac performance both in terms of stroke volume and myocardial work over a range of preloads. The septic, alcohol-infused animals did not show this depression. Thus, a loss of myocardial reserve was demonstrable in hearts isolated from septic, saline-infused rats but not in septic, alcohol-infused rats. Alcohol, at least acutely, seemed to reverse or ameliorate the loss of myocardial reserve induced by sepsis possibly by increasing the ability of the heart to fill during diastole and thus perform volume work.