title: An evaluation of pulsus alternans in closed-chest dogs.
abstract: Pulsus alternans is a condition in which the arterial pressure generated by the heart oscillates between two levels on a beat-to-beat basis. We evaluated the onset of pulsus alternans in chronically instrumented dogs subjected to tachycardia and inferior vena caval occlusion. During pulsus alternans, the left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume (EDV) was larger before the strong beats (28.7 +/- 5.3 vs. 25.9 +/- 4.5 ml, P less than 0.001 by paired t test), suggesting that the Frank-Starling mechanism participates in the alternating difference in end-systolic pressure. In addition, however, the ratio of pressure to volume at end systole was greater in the strong beats (2.01 +/- 0.36 vs. 1.46 +/- 0.45, P less than 0.005 by paired t test), a difference that cannot be explained by the Frank-Starling mechanism alone. This indicates that there is also a difference in end-systolic inotropic states between strong and weak beats. These changes occurred without significant alterations in beat-to-beat levels of coronary flow. The time constant of isovolumic pressure fall (T) was faster for the strong beats (37.5 +/- 4.2 vs 61.1 +/- 12.7 ms, P less than 0.002 by paired t test). The onset of oscillation in T preceded the onset of changes in LVEDV and LV systolic pressure in every case by an average of seven beats (range 3-11), suggesting that abnormalities of intracellular calcium handling led to the occurrence of pulsus alternans.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio 78284.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Widman
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Colston
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003971:Diastole; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D008297:Male; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D013318:Stroke Volume; D013599:Systole; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left