[Therapeutic significance of controlling heart rate in aortic regurgitation (author's transl)].
The hemodynamic effects of aortic regurgitation are characterized by an increase of left ventricular volume load due to the diastolic regurgitation and a decrease of aortic diastolic pressure or coronary perfusion pressure. It is presumed that an increase of heart rate in such a situation diminishes the regurgitant flow and elevates the coronary perfusion pressure so far as it is not accompanied by an improper increase of myocardial oxygen consumption. The present study, although it was the one performed on dog heart with an aortoventricular shunt rather than aortic valvular destruction, demonstrated that the increase of heart rate, if not beyond 160 beats per min, minimizes regurgitant flow as well as regurgitant ratio and maintains effective cardiac output without impairing coronary circulation. Thus it is suggested that it would be of beneficial therapeutic means in aortic regurgitation to keep the heart rate high or, at least, to avoid its excessive deceleration.
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D004285:Dogs; D006339:Heart Rate; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism; D010101:Oxygen Consumption