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Circulation. 2002;105:1545-1547
doi: 10.1161/hc1002.105938
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(Circulation. 2002;105:1545.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.


Brief Rapid Communications

Suppression of Coronary Artery Spasm by the Rho-Kinase Inhibitor Fasudil in Patients With Vasospastic Angina

Akihiro Masumoto, MD; Masahiro Mohri, MD, PhD; Hiroaki Shimokawa, MD, PhD; Lemmy Urakami, MD; Makoto Usui, MD; Akira Takeshita, MD, PhD

From the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan.

Correspondence to Masahiro Mohri, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan. E-mail mmohri{at}med.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Background Increased activity of Rho-kinase causes hypercontraction of vascular smooth muscle and has been implicated as playing a pathogenetic role in divergent cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery spasm. We examined whether an intracoronary infusion of fasudil, a selective Rho-kinase inhibitor, would attenuate coronary vasoconstrictor responses to acetylcholine (ACh) in patients with vasospastic angina.

Methods and Results We studied 20 consecutive patients in whom coronary artery spasm was provoked by intracoronary ACh. The patients underwent a second ACh challenge after pretreatment with intracoronary saline (n=5) or fasudil (n=15; 300 µg/min for 15 minutes). Angina and coronary vasospasm were reproducibly induced by the second testing in patients who received saline. In contrast, fasudil markedly attenuated the coronary constriction induced by ACh (P<0.001) and prevented the occurrence of chest pain and ischemic ECG changes in all treated patients (both P<0.01 versus saline). Fasudil, at the dose used in this study, did not significantly change systemic hemodynamics or baseline coronary blood flow.

Conclusions Fasudil was effective in preventing ACh-induced coronary artery spasm and resultant myocardial ischemia in patients with vasospastic angina. We suggest that this Rho-kinase inhibitor may be a novel therapeutic intervention to treat ischemic coronary syndromes caused by coronary artery spasm.


Key Words: angina • ischemia • circulation




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