title: Modeling pressure-flow relations in cardiac muscle in diastole and systole.
abstract: Pressure-flow relations were calculated for a symmetrical, maximally dilated, crystalloid-perfused coronary vascular network embedded in cardiac muscle in (static) diastole and (static) systole at two muscle lengths: slack length and 90% of maximal muscle length (Lmax). The calculations are based on the "time-varying elastance concept." That is, the calculations include the mechanical properties of the vascular wall and the (varying) mechanical properties of the myocardial tissue (in cross-fiber direction). We found that, at any given perfusion pressure, coronary flow is smaller in systole than in diastole. Relative reduction in vascular cross-sectional area, which forms the basis of flow impediment, was largest for the smallest arterioles. At a constant perfusion pressure of 62.5 mmHg, the transition from (static) diastole to (static) systole at constant muscle length ("isometric contraction") was calculated to reduce flow by 74% (from 18.9 to 5.0 ml x min(-1) x g(-1)) and by 64% (from 12.6 to 4.6 ml x min(-1) x g(-1)) for the muscle fixed at slack length and 90% of Lmax, respectively. At this perfusion pressure, contraction with 14% shortening (from 90% of Lmax in diastole to slack length in systole) was calculated to reduce flow by 61% (from 12.6 to 5.0 ml x min(-1) x g(-1)). Increasing muscle length from slack length to 90% of Lmax decreases coronary flow by 34% in diastole and by 8% in systole. We conclude that modeling cardiac contraction on the basis of the time-varying elastic properties of the myocardial tissue can explain coronary flow impediment and that contractions, with or without shortening, have a larger effect on coronary flow than changes in muscle length.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Physiology, Institute for Cardiovascular Research, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Vis
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sipkema
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Westerhof
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001160:Arterioles / Q000502:physiology; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000502:physiology; D003971:Diastole; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000502:physiology; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D013599:Systole