Changes in Metabolism of Undamaged Sections of Myocardium Following Infarction

The first three to five days after the development of myocardial infarction are a period of unstable condition of the heart muscle with respect to energy formation. It might be thought that the energy and metabolic instabilities of the myocardium also determine its electrical and functional instability, which in turn augments existing disturbances of protein metabolism. It is clear that in myocardial infarction in man, similar disorders in metabolism take place in the heart muscle outside the area of necrosis. The situation is aggravated in man by the circumstance that in the overwhelming majority of cases, myocardial infarction develops on the background of atherosclerosis of the main branches of the coronary arteries which increases the burden of the metabolic disorders existing in the myocardium.