Cardiac effects of atrial natriuretic peptide in subjects with normal left ventricular function

The effects of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) infusion were determined in 9 subjects undergoing cardiac catheterization that did not disclose heart disease. Data were obtained at rest and during the steady-state phase of α-human-(1-28)-atrial natriuretic peptide infusion (0.5 μg/kg bolus, 0.05 μg/ kg/min intravenously for 10 minutes). Mean blood pressure decreased from 105 ± 3 to 98 ± 4 mm Hg (p <0.05); pressure measurements and left ventricular (LV) angiograms suitable for analysis were available in 7 of 9 subjects at matched heart rate. The ANP infusion reduced LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volume indexes from 93 ± 6 to 80 ± 6 ml/m² (p <0.01) and from 25 ± 3 to 17 ± 1 ml/m² (p <0.05), respectively. The LV ejection fraction increased insignificantly from 72 ± 5 to 77 ± 4%. End-systolic pressure/volume ratio showed a slight but not significant increase (from 3 ± 0.4 to 4 ± 0.8). Initial plasma levels of ANP (48 ± 12 pg/ml) increased to 1,890 ± 423 pg/ml (p <0.001) during the infusion and individual hemodynamic responses were not related to plasma ANP concentrations. These data suggest that the administration of ANP has no negative effects on LV function and the ANP-induced changes on cardiac performance are related to the reduced cardiac load.