Alcohol and the heart. Intense hemodynamic changes associated with alcohol flush in orientals.

To evaluate the hemodynamic changes related to alcohol flush, the effects of ethanol intake (0.5 g/kg) were studied by echocardiography and systolic time intervals in 10 Finnish and 9 Japanese healthy volunteers. In 5 Japanese subjects, post-drink facial flush was associated with elevated blood acetaldehyde (peak levels 20-83 mumol/l) and marked cardiocirculatory stimulation. Heart rate was increased directly post ingestion by 65% (p less than 0.01), stroke index by 23% (p less than 0.05), and cardiac index by 106% (p less than 0.05). Diastolic blood pressure was simultaneously decreased by 23% (p less than 0.05), peripheral vascular resistance by 54% (p less than 0.01), and circumferential wall stress by 22% (p less than 0.05); ejection fraction was raised by 26% (p less than 0.01). The other Japanese and the Finnish subjects had no detectable acetaldehyde in blood after ethanol ingestion. The average hemodynamic alterations in them were similar in direction to the changes presented above, but quantitatively 6-10 times smaller (p less than 0.005 for each of these variables). Thus, in Orientals with genetically defective acetaldehyde oxidation, ingestion of even small amounts of alcohol evokes intense enhancement of left ventricular function, probably because of acetaldehyde-induced catecholamine release and peripheral vasodilation.