Harder questions

Question 1

Your patient just took a drug prescribed for their dilated cardiomyopathy, because their heart is not responding as would be predicted by the Frank Starling curve. What could you measure to determine if this drug was giving them the desired response?

Answer 1

Ejection fraction; as this estimates the contractility (inotropic effect) of the heart. With dilated cardiomyopathy the heart is stretching and increasing diastolic blood volume, but without the compensatory increase in contractility as would be predicted by the Frank Starling curve.

Question 2

You decide that blood doping is the way to go for distance running, so you go to high altitude produce more hemoglobin store it and then reintroduce it to your body during your next marathon. Before the race you check your bp what will it look like compared to what it used to be?

increased
decreased
same

Answer 2

Increased.

Blood doping increases the viscosity of the blood which increases TPR thus increasing MAP.