The ability of verapamil to protect severely ischemic myocardium was assessed in dogs using 40 minutes of temporary coronary occlusion. Reperfusion was established for 4 days after which infarcts were sized histologically. Untreated dogs developed subendocardial infarcts (the more moderately ischemic subepicardial region being salvaged by reperfusion). Pretreatment with verapamil reduced the size of these subendocardial infarcts from 34 +/- 8 to 8 +/- 3% of the ischemic circumflex vascular bed at risk (identified by postmortem perfusion of the previously occluded and unoccluded arteries with different dyes). Thus, verapamil prevented cell death in the severely ischemic subendocardial region for the 40-minute test period. In a second study to establish whether verapamil could delay cell death for a longer period of time in the less severely ischemic subepicardial region, a 3-hour period of coronary occlusion was used. This period of occlusion caused infarcts averaging 60 +/- 6% of the ischemic area at risk in untreated dogs. Dogs treated with verapamil 15 minutes postocclusion and throughout the remaining 165 minutes of the 3-hour test period had no limitation of infarct size (53 +/- 3% of the area at risk). In this 3-hour study, the effect of variation in collateral blood flow on infarct size was evaluated by plotting infarct size versus subepicardial collateral flow. Verapamil neither improved collateral flow nor altered the relationship between infarct size and baseline collateral flow. Thus, pretreatment with verapamil prevented necrosis of severely ischemic myocytes, when reperfusion was established at 40 minutes, but failed to prevent necrosis of moderately ischemic myocardium and thus failed to limit infarct size when the period of coronary occlusion was prolonged to 3 hours and treatment was started 15 minutes after the onset of ischemia.