Venous Return and Cardiac Output Flashcards

1
Q

Which circulation has lower pressure?

A
  • Right heart is lower than leg
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2
Q

What is preload?

A
  • Factors determining ventricular filling
  • Factors determining blood down pulmonary vein through LA into LV considered preload of LV
  • Measured as RAP (right atrial pressue)
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3
Q

What is right atrial pressure?

A
  • Very indirectly used as measure of left ventricular preload
  • Easiest way is to measure jugular venous pressure- cm of blood, measured just above sternal angle
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4
Q

What is left atrial pressure?

A
  • Measure of preload of left ventricle
  • Difficult to measure and ‘pulmonary artery wedge pressure’ may be used instead to estimate
  • Or left ventricular diastolic pressure (LVEDO) is measured directly using arterial catheter passed into LV
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5
Q

What factors contribute to preload?

A
  • Gravity
  • Thoracic pump
  • Muscle pump
  • Co-localisation
  • Venomotor tone
  • Blood volume
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6
Q

Describe how gravity affects preload

A
  • Upright- positive for tissues above heart, negative for below
  • Standing may cause drop in venous return- drop in CO
    • Postural hypotension
  • Supine- venous return increased
    • Increase in blood flow to right heart increases force of contraction and output from right heart
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7
Q

What is the consequence of increased blood flow to right heart lying supine?

A
  • Extra blood pushed into lungs- contribute to orthopnoea (breathlessness lying flat)
  • Lungs may be engorges with blood- stiffer, harder to inflate
  • Obesity–> orthopnoea, overweight abdomen presses on diaphragm
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8
Q

Describe how the thoracic pump affects preload inspiration

A
  • On inspiration, diaphragm flattens, raises ab pressure, thoracic pres falls
  • At same time- blood flows from ab to thorax because mechanism pulling air in, pulls out vena cava and sucks blood into thorax
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9
Q

Describe how the thoracic pump affects preload expiration

A
  • Expiration- dome-shape diaphragm, ab pres falls, blood moves from legs into ab
  • increased thoracic pres, ab tends to fill with blood from legs- used in inspiration
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10
Q

What is the useful feature of the thoracic pump?

A
  • Activity-related

- Venous return increases with increased activity

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11
Q

Describe how the muscle pump affects preload

A
  • Arises due to large veins passing through muscle blocks- particularly in limbs
  • Veins compress when muscle contracts
  • Large veins have valves- only permit blood to move to heart
  • Pump also activity related- increased activity increases venous return
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12
Q

Describe how co-localisation affects preload

A
  • Veins, arteries + nerves tend to run together- ensheathed in tight CT
  • As arteries pulsates- massages vein
  • Valves mean this movement causes blood to move towards heart- so mechanism will function when muscles not that active
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13
Q

Describe how venomotor tone affects preload

A
  • Great veins have some smooth muscle
  • Similar pharmacology to arterioles- NA causes vasoconstriction by acting on α-1 receptors
  • Increase ANS sympathetic outflow to veins–> contraction
  • Large part of circulation-> veins of GI and sup/inf vena cava- contraction increases central venous pres and so right heart preload
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14
Q

Describe how blood volume affects preload

A
  • Great veins- capacitance vessels for blood storage
  • Increased blood vol increases central venous press, and so preload
  • Low blood vol reduces venous press, decreases preload
  • Ability to maintain CO decreases
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15
Q

Describe the relationship between venous return and cardiac output

A
  • Sometimes, increaed VR increases CO, but many factors control CO
  • However, VR always limits CO, if CO increases, must be an increase in VR
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16
Q

What affects cardiac output?

A
  • CO = HR x SC
  • SV acheived by filling ventricle to end diastolic vol and emptying down to a certain vol
  • End diastolic pressure can be used as a measure of preload
  • Heart health can be determined by ejection fraction
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17
Q

How can cardiac output be measured?

A
  • Fick principle-CO in the heart (also alveolar vent in lungs and glomerular filtration in kidneys)
  • Also various imaging systems, Doppler flow measurements
18
Q

How can oxygen uptake be measured?

A
  • Oxygen uptake measured by collecting expired air in ‘Douglas bag’ and measuring oxygen conc.
19
Q

How can pulmonary arterial blood oxygen content be measured?

A
  • Sample of RA obtained by inserting catheter into arm vein and pushing through RA
  • E.g. ant cubital vein, sample collected- mixed venous blood
  • Measure oxygen content
20
Q

How can pulmonary venous oxygen content be measured?

A
  • Measuring oxygen content of blood in any systemic artery
21
Q

How can blood oxygen content be measured?

A
  • Haemoglobin conc and oxygen sat

- 1g of Hb fully saturated binds 1.33ml of oxygen

22
Q

How does the ANS affect heart rate?

A
  • SNS increases, PNS slows
  • Natural inherent rate of SAN= ~100bpm
  • At rest, heart under tonic vagal PNS inhibition
  • HR can increase from 70-100bpm be decreasing PNS activity
  • Increase >100bpm requires increased SNS input
  • Max effective HR is ~180bpm after this- encroachment on rapid ventricular filling time (contraction before proper filling) and SV falls rapidly
23
Q

Describe blood flow through coronary supply

A
  • Blood can only flow through coronary supply when muscle relaxes in diastole
  • When contracted, blood vessels flattened
  • At very high rates- danger of cardiac ischaemia- angina
24
Q

What is the Bainbridge reflex?

A
  • HR increases when RAP increases- hence HR increases on inspiration and falls on expiration (sinus arrhythmia)
25
What parts of the heart does the PNS innervate?
- SAN and AVN
26
What parts of the heart does the SNS innervate?
- Nodes and heart muscle | - Changes rate and ventricle contractile strength, therefor SV
27
Describe the role of stroke volume
- SV can be increased by filling ventricle more or by emptying it more - Effect of increasing ventricular filling (i.e. stretching ventricle) investigated by Starling-- starling resistor
28
What did Starling's experiments involved?
- Isolated heart lung preparation in dogs - Replaced systemic circulation with artificial 'Starling Resistor' - Vary peripheral resistance - Vary preload (RAP) by raising or lowering reservoir connected to RA
29
Briefly describe Starling's first experiment
- Heart filling and emptying - Half way through, lifts venous reservoir, increases RH preload - Ventricles fill more due to blood flow to ventricle at higher press. - Increased RAP increases end diastolic vol - Next time heart beats, empties down to same end systolic vol as before- CO increased, heart does more work and end diastolic volume increased
30
Briefly describe Starling's second experiment
- Increased resistance, raises arterial blood press - Heart tries to empy, can't do as much as before - So, after a heartbeat, ventricles stretched to greater end diastolic volume - Heart maintains same SV, CO maintained- done when afterload greater - Heart doing more work when end diastolic vol increased
31
What is Starling's law of the heart?
- Work done by heart in systole related to resting (end diastolic) length of ventricular muscle fibres - Stretch muscle fibres during period heart is filling- next time they contract- more forcefully
32
What is the molecular basis of starling's law?
- Increased force of contraction from actin and myosin strands drawn closer together (compensation) - If fibre stretched too much, cross bridge formation reduced due to reduced overlap of actin and myosin fibrils, force of contraction diminished (decompensation) - Heart with grossly increased EDV contracts poor;y
33
What is the role of Starling's Law?
- Implies increase in venous return causes increase in CO - Early in exercise - Main role of law is to ensure ventricular balance - If you fill heart more- empties to same amount as it did before
34
Describe contractility
- SNS stimulation, or positive inotrope increases - Increase in force not resulting from muscle stretch in diastole (not Starling's) permits ventricle to contract to a smaller ESV
35
How is contractility expressed on a Starling curve?
- Increased and decrease preload- up and down starling curve - Increase and decrease intracellular Ca- switch between starling curves - Flat part of curve- changes in preload no longer increase force of contraction or amount of work done as a result of Starling mechanism
36
What is ventricular failure?
- Inability of heart to pump as hard as it should - Can result in ischaemia, acidosis or death of muscle fibres - If in LV- ventricular balance disturbed- RV continues to pump into lungs, not cleared effectively by LV - Press in pulmonary artery, capillaries, vein increase- LV preload increases - LV stretched more
37
Describe the expression of ventricular failure on Starling's curves
- Failure of LV to clear blood from pulmonary circulation results in dropping to a different starling curve - LV preload increasing results in movement up its new lower curve and eventually ventricular balance restored - But price - pulmonary congestion, possible breathlessness and pulmonary oedema
38
What is Heart Failure?
- Inability to maintain normal CO at normal preload - LH failure- raised pulmonary BP and thus dyspnoea (stiff lungs), maybe pul. oedema - Increased RH after load- may cause RH failure- vasoconstriction due to hypoxia
39
Describe the sequence of events that lead to congestive heart failure
- Fall in CO and kidney perfusion, retain water, increased blood vol--> congestive heart failure (compensation) - Increased central venous press --> peripheral cap pres increases --> peripheral oedema- gravity- ankles - Combined L and R HF = congestive heart failure
40
Describe left heart failure
- Often suffer from orthopnoea - Increased venous return, increases RH preload, - RH output and pulmonary BP rise since LH insufficient at increasing output - In severe cases- paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea- wakes with severe breathlessness and coughing up fluid - Nocturnal asthma attacks may be mistaken for PND caused by HF
41
What happens in exercise?
- Increased venous return with isotonic exercise - Cardiac filling increased- sends heart up Starling curve - Cardiac contractility increased by SNS- new higher curve and less blood left in ventricle at end of systole - HR increases - Mac CO- 25L/min in healthy young adult in male - Most factors contributing to exercise are anticipatory - SV can increase considerably