Mechanisms of Contraction of the Normal and Failing Heart

Abstract

Mechanisms Governing Contraction of the Intact VentricleCharacterization of Cardiac Performance Characteristics of the cardiac pump. Analysis of the heart as a pump has classically centered upon the relation between the filling pressure or diastolic volume (the Frank–Starling relation). It was shown clearly in the heart-lung preparation that the stroke volume is a function of diastolic fiber length, and that the failing heart delivers a smaller than normal stroke volume from a normal or elevated end-diastolic volume.⁹⁸ Later, the concept of measuring stroke volume over a range of mean atrial or ventricular end-diastolic pressures, and of using one of . . .