EDITORIALS
Myocardial oedema: a forgotten entity essential to the understanding of regional function after ischaemia or reperfusion injury
1 Department of Cardiology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
2 University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
3 Department of Cardiology, St George’s Hospital, London, UK
Correspondence to:
Professor R Sutherland, Department of Cardiology, St George’s Hospital, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT, UK; George.Sutherland@stgeorges.nhs.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
It is well established that extracellular myocardial oedema is induced during reperfusion of an acute myocardial infarction and that the presence of oedema is related to cell death.1 With the current clinical developments in non-invasive imaging techniques it is now possible to image the presence of oedema and its effects on local contractile function.2 Yet, to date, the consequences of extracellular oedema related to reperfusion injury have been little studied in the clinical environment.3 Furthermore, although extracellular oedema is a clear marker of cell death, it is unclear whether ischaemia alone produces changes in either extracellular or intracellular water content.
To understand how different types and extents of oedema influence myocardial performance, it is essential to examine the relationship between regional deformation and force development by the contractile elements (true contractility). Bragadeesh et al4 started from the simple concept that strain is directly related to myocyte force development, but the
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