Letter To The Editor: Recovery Of Depressed Myocardial Energy Levels

摘要

Drs. Ingwall and Weiss' recent review article in Circulation Research (“Is the failing heart energy starved? On using chemical energy to support cardiac function”1) addresses an important issue. They conclude, “The requirement of chemical energy in the form of ATP to support systolic and diastolic work of the heart is absolute. We briefly review the basics of myocardial ATP metabolism and describe how this changes in the failing heart.”1 Their insight into the need for adequate high energy phosphate compounds in congestive heart failure has been previously theorized, and is gaining acceptance. Their meticulous discussion in this review as to the need for energy, including mechanistic relationships, is important for both basic and clinical research and serves as a foundation for newly devised metabolic therapies. Further, not only the failing heart, as presented in their review, but other cardiovascular diseases might also demonstrate an equal benefit from preservation or regeneration of cardiac energy stores.