A person with heart failure has the following systolic and diastolic cardiac Pressure-Volume diagram. Aortic blood pressure is 100 mmHg, filling pressure is 25 mmHg. Heart rate is 80 beats per minute. A patient presents with an EKG that shows the disappearance of the wave indicated at A for many seconds. Because the heart functions at maximal levels of oxygen extraction even at rest, coronary blood flow must increase when myocardial oxygen demand is increased.
Stroke volume is the volume of blood each ventricle of the heart ejects per beat.
The blood flow in the skeletal muscles of the legs should increase tremendously during vigorous running. Local metabolites dilate skeletal muscle blood vessels. The percentage of the cardiac output going to a particular organ is related to the metabolic activity of that organ in comparison with the other organs of the body. A cardiac catheterization is done in a healthy person. In a healthy subject, running is usually associated with a decrease in the end-systolic volume of the right and left ventricles and with an increase in their stroke volume.