Chief Scientist Office Scotland and British Heart Foundation.

In humans, basal myocardial blood flow remains constant regardless of the severity of coronary-artery stenosis. However, during hyperemia, flow progressively decreases when the degree of stenosis is about 40 percent or more and does not differ significantly from basal flow when stenosis is 80 percent or greater.

T h e ne w e ngl a nd jou r na l o f m e dicine n engl j med 372;6 nejm.org february 5, 2015

After acute myocardial infarction, there is a severe vasodilator abnormality involving not only resistance vessels in infarcted myocardium, but also those in myocardium perfused by normal coronary vessels. This dysfunction may affect the extent of myocardial ischemia and necrosis after coronary occlusion.