Study of heart mitochondria and glycolytic metabolism in experimentally induced cardiac failure.

• There have been relatively few biochemical studies on experimentally induced congestive heart failure of left ventricular origin. Most of the conclusions concerning metabolism in heart failure have been based on studies on human beings, using techniques of coroTiary sinus catheterization on experimentally induced chronic right heart failure in the dog or on isolated failing preparations from animals." Thus, Benson et al. and Olson studied experimental heart failure in the dog, employing the technique of Barger et al. In this procedure, the failure is induced by a double surgical intervention wherein tricuspid insufficiency and pulmonary stenosis are produced in two stages. Measurements of energy-rich compounds, as well as arteriovenous (A-V) difference of oxygen and substrate in these dogs with cardiac failure,' revealed no significant alteration of these parameters as compared with control animals. In acute failing preparations, Wollenberger, Furchgott and de Gubareff, and Lee et al.' studying, respectively, a dog heart-lung preparation, isolated failing atria from guinea pigs, and isolated failing cat papillary muscles, found no depression of either adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or of