III C - Aortic regurgitation
When the leaflets of the aortic valve fail to create a fluid-tight seal,
blood can leak back into the left ventricle during parts of the cardiac cycle.
How will this affect the normally rectangular shape of the pressure-volume loop?
After making your prediction, create a mild degree of aortic regurgitation
in the program and check your prediction. Vary the degree of aortic
regurgitation and see how the PV loop shape is affected.Varying degrees of aortic disease can be encountered in clinical situations.
The degree of cardiovascular compromise is generally related to the
severity of regurgitation. Determine (make a plot of) how the severity of
aortic regurgitation affects cardiac output, mean aortic pressure and mean
left atrial pressure. In addition, what is the relationship between ventricular
stroke volume determined from the PV loop and stroke volume measured
from the actual cardiac output through the aortic valve with different degrees
of aortic regurgitation. Explain the discrepancy.