Effects of physical training in dogs with coronary artery ligation.

gram and inactivity were compared in two groups of dogs in which acute myocardial infarction was produced by coronary artery ligation. The exercised group of animals tolerated the training program well, and neither arrhythmia nor sudden death oocurred. At the end of the training program the exercised group of animals displayed the characteristic changes of physical conditioning, namely, reduction in exercise heart rate, cardiac output, and blood lactate levels; rise in circulating epinephrine levels with exercise was also suppressed by conditioning. Postmortem examination revealed neither ventricular dilatation nor aneurysm formation.