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Total vascular pressure-volume relationship in conscious rats with chronic heart failure
Insights
Chronic heart failure in rats reduces venous capacitance by decreasing effective vascular compliance. Blood volume and unstressed volume remained unchanged, indicating a specific venous circulation alteration in this condition.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Heart Failure Pathophysiology
Background:
- Chronic left ventricular (LV) failure significantly impacts systemic circulation.
- Understanding venous circulation changes is crucial for managing heart failure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate alterations in venous circulation, specifically mean circulatory filling pressure (MCFP), blood volume, and effective vascular compliance, in a rat model of chronic heart failure.
- To determine if changes in venous capacitance are linked to decreased effective vascular compliance or altered blood volume.
Main Methods:
- Induction of chronic heart failure in rats via coronary ligation.
- Measurement of LV end-diastolic pressure (EDP), MCFP, blood volume, and effective vascular compliance.
- Comparison between heart failure, sham-operated, and normal control groups.
Main Results:
- Rats with chronic heart failure exhibited significantly increased LV EDP and MCFP compared to controls.
- Effective vascular compliance was significantly decreased in heart failure rats.
- Blood volume and unstressed vascular volume did not differ significantly between groups.
Conclusions:
- Chronic heart failure is associated with decreased venous capacitance, primarily due to reduced effective vascular compliance.
- These changes occur without significant alterations in total blood volume or unstressed vascular volume.
- Hexamethonium chloride did not affect effective vascular compliance in heart failure rats.
Abstract:
To define the changes in the venous circulation in chronic left ventricular (LV) failure, we measured the mean circulatory filling pressure (MCFP), blood volume, and effective vascular compliance in conscious rats with heart failure, 3 wk after coronary ligation. Rats with myocardial infarction and LV end-diastolic pressure (EDP) greater than 15 mmHg were considered to have chronic heart failure. Rats with chronic heart failure (n = 11) showed an increase (P less than 0.001) in LV EDP to 24 +/- 2 mmHg compared with 6 +/- 1 mmHg in sham-operated (n = 9) and 7 +/- 1 mmHg in normal (n = 6) rats. In the rats with chronic heart failure the MCFP was increased to 9.9 +/- 0.2 mmHg (P less than 0.001) compared with 7.6 +/- 0.2 mmHg in the sham-operated and 7.7 +/- 0.2 mmHg in the normal rats. Effective vascular compliance was determined from MCFP-blood volume curves. In rats with chronic heart failure, the effective vascular compliance was decreased to 2.40 +/- 0.08 ml X mmHg-1 X kg-1 from 3.34 +/- 0.16 in sham-operated rats and 3.35 +/- 0.22 ml X mmHg-1 X kg-1 in normal rats. The blood volume and the unstressed vascular volume of the rats with chronic heart failure were not statistically different from the sham-operated rats. These results suggest that venous capacitance is decreased in chronic heart failure, due to a decrease in effective vascular compliance with no significant change in unstressed vascular volume. Hexamethonium chloride did not alter the effective vascular compliance of the rats with heart failure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
