title: Effects of heart rate augmentation on left ventricular volumes and cardiac output of the transplanted human heart.
abstract: The response of the donor left ventricle to atrial pacing was measured in 11 patients 12 to 64 days after cardiac transplantation. At operation seven miniature tantalum coils were placed into the midwall of the donor left ventricle so as to outline the ventricle in a 30 degrees right anterior oblique projection. Computer aided fluoroscopic analysis of marker dynamics allowed calculation of end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes, stroke volume, cardiac output, and ventricular filling characteristics. Recipients were studied in a resting, unsedated state during a period of clinical stability that did not immediately follow or precede an episode of graft rejection. Augmentation of heart rate by an average of 40 beats per minute above sinus rate produced significant reductions in end-diastolic volume (-19%), end-systolic volume (-8%), stroke volume (-31%), and the duration of systole (-19%), and diastole (-40%). Cardiac output was invariant with rate. In all patients, end-diastolic volume reduction at augmented rates was brought about by abbreviated diastolic filling as initiation of contraction occurred at an earlier point on a common, incremental filling curve. Previous studies have shown that the normal inverse relationship between heart rate and stroke volume is not available to the transplanted heart in the immediate postoperative period. The present study shows that this intrinsic mechanism becomes available to the denervated heart in the subsequent recovery period after surgery.
mesh_terms: D002302:Cardiac Output; D002306:Cardiac Volume; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology; D006325:Heart Atria; D006339:Heart Rate; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous