Purpose: The present study was carried out to determine the direct effects of etomidate, ketamine, propofol, and fentanyl on myocardial contractility, and whether fentanyl would enhance the myocardial depression caused by propofol.
Method: The anesthetics were injected directly into the circuit that supplied blood to the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX) in anesthetized open-chest dogs. Myocardial contractility was evaluated from measurements of percent segmental shortening (%SS).