CORONARY ARTERIES

SUMMARY

AT REST
1. Coronary flow at rest is about 250ml/min (5% of CO).
2. Flow through coronary arteries occur mainly during diastole.
3. At rest, the heart extracts 70-80% of O2 from each unit of blood.

DURING EXERCISE
4. Oxygen extraction increases to almost 100%
5. Coronary flow is increased 5-6x.
6. This increase is limited if there’s proximal stenosis.

Reference(s)

Barrett, K.E., Barman, S.M., Boitano, S., Brooks, H.L., Weitz, M., Brian Patrick Kearns, Ganong, W.F. and Mcgraw-Hill Education (Firm (2016). Ganong’s review of medical physiology. 25th ed. New York: Mcgraw Hill Education.
Hall, J.E. and Hall, M.E. (2020). Guyton And Hall Textbook Of Medical Physiology. 14th ed. S.L.: Elsevier - Health Science.
West, J.B. and Luks, A.M. (2021). West’s Pulmonary Pathophysiology. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.