The improvement of systolic function of depressed left ventricle by external vibration at diastole

The left ventricular (LV) incomplete relaxation (IR) has been reported to play an important role in the pathophysiology of the congestive heart failure such as causing higher diastolic pressure and/or impeding the coronary perfusion during diastole. Therefore, using open chest canine preparations (n = 4), we examined 1) whether the minute external vibration during diastole could release IR and 2) what occurred to LV systolic function in this perturbation. LV failure with IR was induced by propranolol administration and, if necessary, by rapid atrial pacing up to 180 beats/min. When we applied a 50 Hz, sinusoidal vibration of 2.1 mm magnitude during diastole to the epicardium of LV with complete relaxation, there was no significant change in the ventricular function. However, the systolic functional improvement (3.8 +/- 1.1 mmHg elevation in LV systolic pressure) was observed when the vibration was applied to LV with IR. We concluded that external vibration at diastole could release IR and would be useful to improve the systolic function of the depressed heart with IR.