Accurate quantification of arterial function is crucial to distinguishing disease states from normal variants. However, there are little data regarding methods to scale arterial load to body size in humans. We studied 2365 adults aged 35 to 55 years free of overt cardiovascular disease. We assessed arterial hemodynamics and ventricular-vascular coupling with carotid tonometry and Doppler echoca...

Arterial smooth muscles behave like a syncytium, since they are electrically coupled. It is generally assumed that electrical coupling and dye coupling are mediated by gap junctions. No gap junctions could be detected by transmission electron microscopy in media of coronary arteries. We looked for the presence of gap junction protein in vascular smooth muscle by immunohistochemistry with light ...

Still's murmur is the most common innocent heart murmur in children and considered flow related; however, so far the cause of the murmur has not yet been fully explained. Assessment of the hemodynamic ventriculo-arterial interaction and the proportional anatomical dimensions of the left ventricle and the aortic root were the objective for this study. This case-control study was conducted at the...

Estimation of ventricular contractility is clinically important in diagnosing cardiac dysfunction in the critically ill. However, experimental assessment of indexes of ventricular contractility, such as the end-systolic pressure-volume relationship requires a highly invasive maneuver. This research describes the use of a previously validated cardiovascular system (CVS) model and identification ...

The ratio of effective arterial elastance (Ea) to left ventricular elastance (Ees) is an indicator of the coupling between ventricular properties and arterial load properties. Another criterion for the coupling between an energy source and its load is the principle of economical fuel consumption, or mechanical efficiency, which is defined as the ratio of stroke work (SW) to myocardial oxygen co...

This investigation was undertaken to assess left ventricular-arterial coupling relations in the normal human heart under varying loading conditions and inotropic states and thereby to establish whether the working point of the normal human heart is at optimal output or mechanical efficiency under basal hemodynamic conditions. In 22 patients with an atypical chest pain syndrome who had normal co...