Page 8, Cardiac Cycle, Dr. D. Penney


Cardiac Filling:

Historically, emphasis has been placed on contraction as opposed to relaxation. Obviously the pump must be filled before it can eject. During the past decade the essential role of relaxation has begun to be realized. Death from heart failure often occurs as the result of the inability of the ventricle to relax, thus fill.

Studies have found that intraventricular pressure continues to fall during rapid filling and negative intraventricular pressures have been reported, suggesting that the ventricle "sucks" blood from the atria, veins, etc. Because the heart is doing work on the blood after contraction ceases, this has caused some physiologists to espouse alternate views of the cardiac cycle, where systole is re-defined as the heart doing work, in whatever form. In this view, systole also includes isovolumic relaxation and rapid filling. See Misconception number 1.



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