Investigation of a new heart contractility power parameter

First derivative of arterial blood pressure, dp/dt is known to reflect the contractility power of the heart. We hypothesize that the calculated area under each cardiac cycle of the blood pressure curve is also another practical tool in revealing the heart contractility power. Of the 84 subjects, 61 patients were found to have adequate contractility power (high dp/dt) and their mean area calculation resulted in 64.2 mmHg s with a standard deviation of 2.9 mmHg s. The remaining 23 patients have indicated poor heart contractility power (low dp/dt) and stayed in serious condition for long time. This group had mean area of 41.4 +/- 3.1 mmHg s. Patients with poor contractility power had areas below 45 mmHg s, while all area calculations for patients with high contractility power stayed over 60 mmHg s. Therefore, small area of the arterial blood pressure curves seems to be a good indicator of a poor heart contractility power and the area calculation may be an adjunct parameter to the dp/dt that has been employed for the assessment of heart contractility.