[The role and mechanism of berberine on coronary arteries].

Berberine increased coronary artery flow of anesthetized open-chest canines and isolated guinea pig hearts with ventricular fibrillation induced by electric stimulus. The rabbits were protected by berberine from ischemic ECG changes caused by posterior pituitary hormones. Spasm of isolated swine coronary arterial rings responded to ergometrine was able to be prevented and treated effectively by berberine. On isolated swine coronary arterial strips, berberine shifted norepinephrine cumulative dose-response curve rightward parallelly without decreasing the maximal response. The pA2 value was 6.7. Contraction treatment effects post-PBMV, the cardiac function tended to decline with time, the decrease of ejection fraction, stroke volume and cardiac output were 0.03 +/- 0.007, 5.44 +/- 1.04 ml and 0.44 +/- 0.08 L/min respectively. This might be due to the unsuccessful control of activity of rheumatism after PBMV and it is necessary to pay attention to in the future.