Impact of Decreased Transmural Conduction Velocity on the Function of the Human Left Ventricle: A Simulation Study

Figure 4

Simulation of function of systemic cardiovascular circuit during a steady cycle at resting heart rate (72 beats/min, stimulation interval 0.8333 s) in control conditions (black lines) and after incorporation of changes (increase of and decrease of ) resulting in prolongation of IVCD and reduction of (grey lines); these changes were obtained by means of the FE model after decrease of TCV to 50%. The traces in the upper graph represent the time courses of LV contraction, and represents a delay of the maximum contraction under the reduced TCV against control conditions. The middle graph shows the time course of development of (solid), (dotted), and (dashed) under both explored conditions; the small black vertical lines mark the beginning and end of IVC. The bottom graph shows the corresponding diagrams with their loop area representing the LV stroke work; for comparison with diagram measured in normal human LV see Figure 12.2 in [20].