Norepinephrine- and heparin-induced changes in plasma free fatty acids: A comparison between patients with ischemic heart disease and normal young adults

Abstract

NE (0.2 μg per kilogram per minute) and heparin (100 mg. intravenously) were used to learn whether their respective lipolytic effects would reveal changes in the plasma FFA that might differ in subjects with a history of myocardial infarction and in young normal subjects. FFA increases in plasma after NE occurred slower and to a significantly lesser degree in the coronary group. Although the pattern change of FFA was similar in both groups and reflected lipolysis of adipose tissue, there was substantially less rise in percentage of palmitoleic acid in the coronary. The heparin sensitive lipid pool in the coronary group contained significantly more palmitoleic acid than the normal, both in terms of absolute amount and as percentage of total FFA. Sixty minutes after heparin, there was a significantly greater amount of stearic acid still present in the plasma of the coronary group than in normal group. Heparin was also given 5 minutes after NE infusion was stopped. Ten minutes later there was a significantly greater increase in the two saturated acids, myristic and palmitic, in the coronary group. The rate of decline of total and individual FFA was much faster after the higher levels of FFA which were reached by combined effect of NE and heparin.