Effect of chronic ibuprofen therapy on early healing of experimentally induced acute myocardial infarction in dogs

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that ibuprofen therapy for concomitant pericarditis may be associated with an increased clinical incidence of ventricular septal rupture after acute myocardial infarction.¹ Decreased tensile strength and increased wall tension in the necrotic region have both been proposed as possible pathogenic factors in cardiac rupture.^2,3 Thus, ibuprofen may "weaken" the myocardium-perhaps by altering the integrity of the native collagen fibroskeleton-and thereby predispose the heart to early postinfarction rupture. This study assesses the effect of chronic pretreatment with high-dose ibuprofen on tensile strength of isolated myocardial samples, left ventricular wall thickness and myocardial collagen content during the initial hours after coronary artery occlusion in an anesthetized dog model of acute myocardial infarction.