Acute diabetes mellitus does not impair survival rate in rats submitted to left coronary artery ligation
Nadeau, A.; Tancrède, G.; Rousseau-Migneron, S.
Canadian Journal of Cardiology 3(2): 90-93
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0828-282X PMID: 3552160 Document Number: 295270
This study was designed to assess whether the acute metabolic disturbances associated with diabetes mellitus of three-days duration could influence the survival of rats submitted to experimental myocardial infarction. Diabetes was induced with streptozotocin (50 mg/kg) in male Wistar rats and three days later left coronary artery ligation was performed in both control (n = 34) and diabetic (n = 31) animals. Diabetic rats had significant alterations in plasma levels of glucose (424 +/- 6 vs 143 +/- 3 mg/dL; p less than 0.001), insulin (10 +/- 1 vs 32 +/- 2 microU/mL; p less than 0.001) and free carnitine (37 +/- 2 vs 52 +/- 2 microM; p less than 0.001). There was no significant difference in the survival rate of diabetic animals, either early after coronary artery ligation (32 vs 42% at 20 min; p greater than 0.1) or later (21 vs 25% at 1 week; p greater than 0.1). This suggests that the increased mortality rate found in diabetic subjects suffering from myocardial infarction is due to some long-term changes associated with chronic diabetes mellitus rather than to the acute metabolic disturbances present at the time of this event.