title: The effect of coronary perfusion pressure and preload on left ventricular systolic wall stress parameters.
abstract: The effect of coronary perfusion pressure (i.e., mean aortic pressure) and of left-ventricular preload (i.e., left-ventricular enddiastolic wall stress) on left-ventricular peak developed wall stress (sigma max) and the maximum rate of stress development (d sigma/dtmax syst) and relaxation (d sigma/dtmax diast) was examined in anesthetized rats under open-chest conditions. Pulmonary flow, aortic pressure, and left-ventricular pressure amplitude, as well as enddiastolic pressure and dP/dt were measured and the respective wall stress parameters were calculated from the measured pressure and volume data, assuming a thick-walled sphere. Aortic pressure and right-ventricular filling pressure could be adjusted independently of each other via two header tanks. A primary increase in coronary perfusion pressure results in a linear rise in sigma max, d sigma/dtmax syst, and d sigma/dtmax diast. With increasing preload, however, the systolic wall stress parameters only increase initially, run through a maximum and then decrease with further elevation of the leftventricular enddiastolic wall stress. These results are interpreted such that, at a given mean aortic pressure the wall stress developed in the left ventricle rises with increasing preload and, consequently, the difference between mean aortic pressure and mean left-ventricular intramural wall stress declines. With decreasing difference between mean aortic pressure and mean intramural wall stress, the coronary flow is reduced. This interplay between left-ventricular wall stress on the one hand and coronary flow on the other is expressed in the critical value of enddiastolic wall stress, at which a further increase in preload leads to a marked reduction in coronary flow and, hence, to a fall in the systolic wall stress parameters.
authors.affiliation: Physiologisches Institut II, Universität Tübingen, FRG.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kissling
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dierberger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003971:Diastole; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013599:Systole