Objective: 

Previous studies have shown that the impairment in myocardial contractility and dysfunction increase in response to food restriction. But the effect of food restriction on the myocardial damage and ischemia induced arrhythmia are still unknown. In this study, it has been aimed to research the effect of food restriction on the arrhythmia and infarct size during myocardial ischemia in rats

Methods: 

Eighteen female rats were used in this study. Control and food restricted animals were fed in individual cages. Control animals were fed ad libitum. Food restriction was made by decreasing of dietary food in 50% for 15 days. Left coronary artery was ligated by the silk to produce 30 minutes occlusion in all groups. The blood pressure and ECG were recorded during ischemia. An arrhythmia score was calculated from the duration and the type of arrhythmia. All results were compared after the analyses of variance or Chi-square test

Results: 

Non-significant increase in ventricular tachycardia has been observed in food restricted group. There was no effect of indiviual and group feeding on the arrhythmia or myocardial infarct size in relation to food restricted group.

Conclusions: 

Although food restriction did not change the infarct size, the blood pressure and the severity of arrhythmia, significant increased in the arrhythmic period (p < 0.05) and non-significant increase in ventricular tachycardia (p < 0.2) were observed in food restricted group in respect to control. As a result the findings in the present study support the food restriction promotes myocardial dysfunction.