Systo-diastolic coupling as a therapeutic target for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

传统上，心脏将血液泵入全身的效果是通过每次心跳时心脏泵出的血液比例来衡量的，即射血分数。现在人们知道，即使他们的射血分数在正常范围内，一个人仍然会出现呼吸急促等严重的心力衰竭症状，他们的预期寿命可能会缩短。这种形式的心力衰竭并保留射血分数尚不清楚，并且很少有专门的治疗方法。我们最近的研究表明，这种形式的心力衰竭是由于心脏努力收缩，所以在每次心跳时，它必须收缩得更慢，时间更长，才能像正常心脏一样泵出同样的量。检测这种情况的关键是测量每次心跳开始时心脏收缩的程度——第一阶段射血分数。在这个项目中，我们将确定这种新的测量方法是如何依赖于每次心跳时返回心脏的血液量和心脏所承受的压力的。这将告诉我们如何最好地使用现有的药物，已知影响这两个因素来治疗心力衰竭保留射血分数。它还将有助于确定这种类型的心力衰竭的新治疗方法。

How well the heart works to pump blood around the body has traditionally been measured by the fraction of blood the heart pumps out with each heartbeat - the ejection fraction. It is now understood that, even if their ejection fraction is in the normal range, a person can still develop serious symptoms of heart failure like shortness of breath and their life-expectancy may be reduced. This form of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is not well understood and few specific treatments for it are available. Recent work by us suggests that this form of heart failure is due to the heart struggling to contract so that, during each heartbeat, it has to contract more slowly for longer to do the same amount of pumping as a normal heart. The key to detecting this is to measure how well the heart contracts at the very beginning of each heart beat - the first-phase ejection fraction. In this project we will determine how this new measurement depends on the amount of blood that returns to the heart with each heart beat and the pressure that the heart has to push against. This will then tell us how we might best use existing medicines that are know to affect these two factors to treat heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. It will also help identify new treatments for this type of heart failure.