The Determinants of Cardiac Output (old version)
Channel: danders3
Date: 2011-11-26

(SEE REMASTERED VERSION W/ IMPROVED VIDEO & AUDIO: https://youtu.be/0bntSIg2Aqk )

In this groundbreaking video, pioneer heart surgeon and cardiovascular equipment inventor Dr. Robert M. Anderson, MD (1920-2010) explains the fundamental -- but often misunderstood -- determinants of cardiac output, using his hydraulic model of the cardiovascular system. The full text of his book on these concepts, "The Gross Physiology of the Cardiovascular System" is available for free download at http://www.cardiac-output.info

The video demonstrates the unique nature of the heart as a non-sucking pump, whose output is controlled by systemic factors, as opposed to pumps (such as standard roller pumps) that suck to fill, whose output is controlled by pump factors.  It also shows the determinative effects of Mean Vascular Pressure, Inlet Impedance, and the critical role of the atrium on cardiac output. The resulting understanding is far more illuminating of the actual determinants of cardiac output than the emphasis on concepts like "stroke rate times stroke volume," preload, afterload, and contractility that dominates many basic physiology courses.

Robert M. Anderson, MD (1920-2010) was Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona, and a Fellow of both the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Surgeons.