Cardiodynamics of Exercise in the Patient with Stenosis of One Coronary Artery

¹ Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis

The hemodynamic responses to supine leg exercise in eight control subjects and 11 patients with stenosis of one coronary artery are reported. There was no characteristic difference in mean arterial pressure, stroke volume index, or stroke index at rest or with exercise between subjects and patients with disease of a single coronary artery. However, exercise produced a fall in enddiastolic diastolic pressure in subjects without coronary disease and an elevation in this pressure in patients with stenosis of one coronary artery. Possible reasons for the conflicting reports in the literature concerning the effect of exercise on the end-diastolic pressure in normal subjects are discussed. The importance of being able to separate, cardiodynamically, normals from patients with single vessel coronary artery disease patients is stressed.