The basic heart anatomy and physiology from the cardiologist's perspective: Toward a better understanding of left ventricular mechanics, systolic, and diastolic function
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Updated: Aug 26, 2025

Echocardiographic Assessment of Cardiac Anatomy and Function in Adult Rats
Published on: December 13, 2019
Danijela Trifunović-Zamaklar1,2, Ivana Jovanović1, Jelena Vratonjić1
1Clinic for Cardiology, University Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia.
Abstract:
A comprehensive understanding of the cardiac structure-function relationship is essential for proper clinical cardiac imaging. This review summarizes the basic heart anatomy and physiology from the perspective of a heart imager focused on myocardial mechanics. The main issues analyzed are the left ventricular (LV) architecture, the LV myocardial deformation through the cardiac cycle, the LV diastolic function basic parameters and the basic parameters of the LV deformation used in clinical practice for the LV function assessment.
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