Histochemical observation on the enzyme activities of human myocardium

Recently, by histochemical observations the changed activities of the enzymes of heartr,nuscle in experimentally induced ischemia have been reported by several investigatorsl~4. SHNITKA and NACHLAS4 demonstrated that the ligation of coronal artery of dog heart induced an increase in the activities of succinic dehydrogenase and NAD-diaphorase four to six hours after the ligation. However, extracorporeal circulation induced no distinct changes in the activities of succinic dehydrogenase and cytochrome oxidase as has been revealed quite recently by BJORK and associate5 from their histochemical studies of the specimen from left ventricular myocardium by a method of drill biopsy, but only the myocardial edema and fibrosis ocurred. This report deals with the distribution and activities of oxidative enzymes of human myocardium of fortyone cases of congenital heart disease and four cases of mitral stenosis and two controls, the specimen of which were obtained at the surgical operation. The purpose is to confirm the damaging effect of occlusion of blood flow in surgical operation on muscle fiber.