抄録
Thebesian veins and Wearn's arterio-luminal and arterio-sinusoidal vessels have been collectively named the coronary-luminal communicating channels by the author. As to their functional or physiological properties, little has been known yet, because of the extreme difficulties encountered in measurements of their blood flow. The author experimentally demonstrated the existence of shunt flow through these communicating channels, in fibrillating heart, in heart beating in situ, and in isolated, perfused, beating heart.The proportion of the shunt flow draining into the left heart chambers to the total coronary flow was estimated to be several per cent in fibrillating heart and in isolated, perfused, beating heart. Therefore, the coronary-luminal shunt flow does not seem to influence too much the reliability of the nitrous oxide method in coronary venous catheterization.It has been also suggested that this shunt flow might act as a compensatory mechanism, under certain hemodynamic changes such as the elevation of intra-cardiac pressure on the right side.
