iScience (Dec 2024)

Myocardial blood flow mechanism of mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia in women with ANOCA

  • Han Yin,
  • Fengyao Liu,
  • Bingqing Bai,
  • Quanjun Liu,
  • Yuting Liu,
  • Haochen Wang,
  • Yu Wang,
  • Yannis Yan Liang,
  • Anbang Liu,
  • Xueju Yu,
  • Cheng Jiang,
  • Chao Wu,
  • Bo Kong,
  • Jingjin Liu,
  • Lan Guo,
  • Hongwen Fei,
  • Shuxia Wang,
  • Wei Jiang,
  • Huan Ma,
  • Qingshan Geng

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 12
p. 111302

Abstract

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Summary: Mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI) is linked to a 2-fold increase in cardiovascular events, but its underlying myocardial blood flow (MBF) mechanisms remain underexplored. Using nitrogen-13-ammonia cardiac positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) assessing myocardial perfusion defect and MBF under resting, mental stress (MS), adenosine stress (AS) conditions, angina with no obstructive coronary artery disease (ANOCA) women showed a significantly higher prevalence of MSIMI compared to age-matched healthy controls (36/84 vs. 1/42, p < 0.001). The MBFAS and rate-pressure product-corrected MBFMS were consistently lower, especially in the left anterior descending artery territory, in participants with increased perfusion defect scores under MS. The lowest values of restricted coronary flow reserve and corrected MBFMS in participants of ANOCA&MSIMI+ group indicated that impaired coronary microvascular function and mismatch between myocardial blood supply and demand together constitute the pathogenic mechanism of MSIMI in ANOCA population. These findings deepen our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of MSIMI and confirm the long-standing hypothesis of the involvement of impaired coronary microvascular function.

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