CORRECTION OF DISTURBANCES OF CARDIAC CON TRACTILITY AND ELECTRICAL STABILITY BY DIET ENRICHED WITH POLYUNSATURATED FATTY-ACIDS IN RATS WITH POSTINFARCTION CARDIOSCLEROSIS

Myocardial infarction was produced in rats by Selye technique after 14 - 20 days of feeding a diet containing ''eiconol'' (oil extracted fro m fish muscle meat enriched with eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids). Then for 30 days rats continued to receive eiconol. At the end of this term cardiac contractility and electrical stability were stud ied ''in situ''. It was found that eiconol increased fibriliation thre shold by 50%, decreased incidence of spontaneous premature beats by 3 times and number of ectopic beats induced by vagal stimulation by 2.5 times. In eiconol fed animals depression of contractile function of th e heart was significantly less pronounced than it was characteristic o f postinfarction cardiosclerosis in the rat. Eiconol fed rats had high er developed pressure, Katz index and velocity of pressure decline tha n other animals with cardiosclerosis (by 15.6, 36.4, 34%, respectively ). Reaction of cardiac contractility to intravenous infusion of noradr enaline (5 mcg/kg) showed that eiconol increased adrenoreactivity of m yocardium.