(Circulation. 1995;92:3377-3380.)
© 1995 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
Diagnostic Significance of Impaired LV Systolic Relaxation in Heart Failure
From the Department of Physiology and Medicine, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Correspondence to Stanislas U. Sys, MD, PhD, Department of Physiology and Medicine, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium.
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Introduction |
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 Top Introduction Load Dependence of Relaxation...Load Dependence In Vivo...Implications for the Evaluation...References |
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In the clinical evaluation of left ventricular (LV) function in humans, there has been growing interest in the diagnostic and prognostic power of measurements or derived indexes of LV systolic relaxation, ie, LV isovolumetric pressure fall and early rapid filling. Most of these measurements have been appreciated as excellent predictors of LV systolic function, in particular in the early phases of ischemic and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. Misinterpretation of such measurements, however, has often contributed to the many controversies concerning the diagnosis of diastolic cardiac failure. To most clinicians, the concept and diagnosis of LV diastolic dysfunction or failure are not easy. Part of this problem relates to the fact that many, mainly clinical, investigators erroneously persist in applying different definitions of diastole, mostly on empirical-historical grounds, depending on whether they consider the heart as a pump instead of a "muscular" pump or analyze cardiac hemodynamics as a function of time or as pressure-volume (P-V) relations. Meanwhile, diastolic failure of the heart has become a widely recognized clinical entity. In a recent review, we identified diastolic failure as a condition resulting from an increased resistance to ventricular filling and leading to symptoms of congestion due to an inappropriate shift of the diastolic P-V relation.1 Causes of diastolic failure, and hence of shifts in the diastolic P-V relation, are inappropriate tachycardia, decreased diastolic myocardial/ventricular compliance, and impaired LV systolic relaxation, ie, impaired LV isovolumetric pressure fall or early rapid filling.
Further, in this issue of Circulation, Ishizaka and colleagues2 have again drawn attention to the importance of impaired LV systolic relaxation as an early event in experimental heart failure. These investigators examined the contribution of changes in end-systolic volume and of the loading sequence to impaired LV isovolumetric relaxation in overdrive-pacing heart failure. They used caval occlusion to decrease end-diastolic volume and quantified LV isovolumetric relaxation by the time constant tau. They found larger changes in tau for a comparable reduction in end-systolic force in heart failure compared with the normal heart. The authors discuss possible mechanisms by which systolic loading may differently alter LV isovolumetric relaxation in normal and in failing hearts: restoring forces, intracellular calcium handling, additional crossbridge recruitment, nonuniformity, and wave reflection. In isolated cardiac muscle, restoring forces are known to affect primarily isotonic relaxation, ie, muscle fiber lengthening. Because in the ventricle, a substantial portion of fiber lengthening already occurs during LV isovolumetric relaxation (untwisting and shape changes), restoring forces will contribute not only to early rapid ventricular filling but also, to a large extent, to isovolumetric pressure decline. In view of the widely recognized importance of impaired LV systolic relaxation in the early phases of heart failure or as a possible cause of diastolic failure as defined above, these interesting observations can be fully appreciated only when interpreted in the somewhat broader context of the heart as a muscular pump.
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Load Dependence of Relaxation |
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TopIntroductionLoad Dependence of Relaxation...Load Dependence In Vivo...Implications for the Evaluation...References |
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Both in isolated cardiac muscle and in the intact ventricle, many investigators have emphasized the conceptual link between the processes underlying activation during contraction and those underlying inactivation during relaxation, relaxation being governed by the interaction of detachment of cross-bridges and Ca2+ reuptake by the sarcoplasmic reticulum and modulated by prevailing load; we called this latter property the "load dependence" of relaxation.3 4 5 As a consequence of load dependence, rapid isotonic lengthening during relaxation of a preloaded or afterloaded isotonic twitch in isolated cardiac muscle contrasts with the slower force decline of either an isometric twitch or an afterloaded isotonic twitch regardless of whether isometric force decline preceded or followed lengthening.
To understand the concept of load dependence, one should keep in mind the inactivation processes that underlie isotonic lengthening as well as isometric force decline during relaxation. Isotonic and isometric relaxation are governed by the ensemble of processes leading to the disappearance of force-generating cross-bridges. The number of cross-bridges during relaxation is determined by (1) the life cycle of each individual cross-bridge along with regulatory properties of the contractile proteins and (2) calcium removal by the calcium-sequestering membrane systems, particularly the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Although both isotonic and isometric relaxation modes are governed by the same determinants of cross-bridge kinetics, the relative contributions of these determinants in controlling onset and rate of relaxation are different in isometric force decline and in isotonic lengthening. In an isometric twitch, "cooperative" activity, that is, a process of "increased" sensitivity of the contractile proteins that is induced by the attachment of cross-bridges and hence by the force development itself, will upgrade the development and maintenance of force throughout contraction and relaxation. On the other hand, calcium sequestration by the sarcoplasmic reticulum will, in the presence of a reduced effect of cooperative activity in the isotonic twitch and through facilitation of cross-bridge detachment, allow for load-induced rapid lengthening.
From these considerations, it was postulated that in isotonic lengthening, in the presence of a well-functioning Ca2+ reuptake by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, cross-bridges would detach more easily than in isometric force decline because of the additional effect of loading in isotonic conditions. Preloaded or afterloaded isotonic twitches, therefore, are always of shorter duration than the corresponding isometric twitch; load dependence of relaxation is thereby manifest as the resulting separation in time of relaxation in isotonic and isometric twitches or as the resulting difference in twitch duration. Hence, the extent of load dependence in isolated cardiac muscle can be derived from the pattern (eg, onset, peak rate, and rate versus time) of both isotonic lengthening and isometric force decline during twitch relaxation. Accordingly, these events are an integral part of one and the same contraction-relaxation cycle and hence of muscle "systole." To cardiac muscle physiologists, muscle "diastole" refers to the rest or pause between two such activity cycles.5
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Load Dependence In Vivo |
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TopIntroductionLoad Dependence of Relaxation...Load Dependence In Vivo...Implications for the Evaluation...References |
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Similarly, in the ventricle, isovolumetric pressure fall and early rapid filling somehow, although in an auxotonic fashion,5 relate to tension decline and rapid lengthening of the ventricular myocardium, respectively; ventricular relaxation should therefore, on conceptual grounds, be considered as part of systole. From this it follows that systolic function of the heart as a muscular pump is a reflection of the interaction between the loading conditions (hemodynamics, Laplace, twisting-untwisting) and the intrinsic properties of the myocardium during contraction (contractility) and relaxation (load dependence) and is modulated by some degree of nonuniformity in space and time.
Interestingly, the concept of load dependence of
ventricular relaxation has recently been endorsed by in
vivo canine experiments. As stated above, in the ventricle a
substantial portion of cardiac fiber lengthening already occurs during
isovolumetric pressure fall. Load dependence in vivo may therefore
become manifest not merely as load-induced rate changes during
early rapid filling but during isovolumetric pressure fall as well, ie,
tau, dP/dt(-), etc. In an attempt to answer the question of which
ejection variables are important in determining the increase in
isovolumetric LV relaxation rate with increased stroke volume, Hori and
colleagues6 used an isolated canine heart with
servocontrolled volume; this model is particularly suited to control
the entire pattern of LV volume during systole and diastole
and to isolate the most critical ejection parameters. The
authors demonstrated that the increased rate of isovolumetric
relaxation, measured as the time constant tau of isovolumetric LV
pressure fall, was a mere consequence of the delayed onset of
relaxation induced by increased stroke volume. However, the influence
of pressure variables, such as end-systolic force or
stress, was not directly addressed in this article. Moreover, the time
constant of isovolumetric LV pressure decline does, unfortunately,
merely characterize a limited portion of ventricular
relaxation, ie, from time to minimal dP/dt to 5 or 10 mm Hg above
minimal LV pressure. Leite-Moreira and Gillebert7
subdivided LV pressure decline during relaxation into three phases and
studied the entire pattern of LV pressure decline by pressure
phase-plane analysis, following up the force
phase-plane analyses in our earlier article.8
By taking into account measured peak isovolumetric LV pressure of a
control beat, they could predict the effect of abrupt elevations in
systolic LV pressure on the rate of LV pressure decline during
the three phases. The J-shaped curve relating time constant
tau to LV systolic pressure, in their Figs 7 and
8, reflects
the effects of loading on ventricular relaxation rate in
the presence of unaltered intrinsic load dependence. Altered load
dependence would become manifest as a shift in this curve (Fig
1A
). Clearly, this kind of analysis must be
taken into account whenever ventricular rate is examined as
a measurement to evaluate late systolic events during LV
relaxation and filling, in particular when loading conditions are
expected to be affected, as, for example, after pharmacological
interventions or in clinical situations. Both these in vivo studies
illustrate that ventricular relaxation dynamics of normal
hearts are, under well-controlled neurohumoral conditions, uniquely
determined by the loading conditions (hemodynamics,
Laplace, untwisting) interacting with intrinsic load dependence of
relaxation5 ; as outlined above, this latter property is
determined by Ca2+ reuptake and affinity of the contractile
proteins.
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) and after 
induction of overdrive-pacing heart
failure in B (modified after Fig 3 of Reference 2). A, Although
a
change in the loading conditions of the heart is reflected by a shift
along the curve, a change in load dependence as an intrinsic muscle
relaxation property would be reflected by a shift or shape change of
the entire curve (arrow). B, Although the axes in the two panels are
not identical, the similarity between the traces in A and B might
suggest that in overdrive-pacing heart failure, the data points for
the time constant are shifted along one and the same trace (arrow?),
ie, a change in systolic loading conditions. Because only a
change in the response at matched abscissa values would imply a change
in load dependence, the traces in B do not exclude changed loading
conditions as the origin of changed relaxation rates. LVP indicates
left ventricular pressure; 
, TD, time constant of LVP
decline; and ES, end-systolic.In the study by Ishizaka and colleagues,2 LV isovolumetric relaxation was compared before and after induction of heart failure in one set of seven conscious dogs. Heart failure, as induced by overdrive pacing, is known to be characterized by early functional disturbances, not only in contractile function and in endothelium- and ß-adrenergic receptor–mediated control but also in relaxation. These functional disturbances persist for different time intervals after cessation of pacing.9 This may be consistent with different structural changes, such as in the myocardium,10 in the interstitium,11 and in the endocardium.12 In this model of congestive heart failure by overdrive pacing, the presence of relaxation abnormalities again draws our attention to the diagnostic significance of measurements or indexes during this phase.
The individual dog data in Fig 3 of Ishizaka et
al2 do not
exclude the possibility that all the data points both before and after
pacing might still fall on one and the same J-shaped curve,
ie, similar to Figs 7 and 8 in the paper by
Leite-Moreira and
Gillebert,7 and hence demonstrating unchanged load
dependence in cardiac failure. The increased slope after pacing would
then merely follow from a shift along the abscissa to higher
end-systolic force on one and the same uninterrupted curve
relating tau to end-systolic force in the failing hearts;
in other words, the data could be interpreted by a mere increase in
loading conditions (Fig 1B
). This would also explain the
equalization
of the changes in tau when stresses and heart rate were matched at the
same levels in control and failing hearts.13 Referring to
loading sequence as a determinant of isovolumetric relaxation rate,
Ishizaka et al noticed that the observed changes in tau in the failing
heart were related to time to peak force rather than to
end-systolic volume, despite substantial residual variation
in tau at any given time to peak force (Fig 6 in Reference 2).
Heart
failure did not result in a shift in the curve relating tau to loading
sequence and hence, as outlined above, did not result in a change in
intrinsic load dependence. To further solve the problem of whether
impaired relaxation in pacing-induced heart failure is due to a
mere change in prevailing loading conditions or sequence, as suggested
by Ishizaka et al, or to a change in intrinsic load dependence of
muscular relaxation, which would imply a change in the failing heart
either in the Ca2+ reuptake or in the affinity of the
contractile proteins, a more elaborate series of experiments has to be
carried out encompassing the entire relaxation process at matched
loading conditions, as in the study by Leite-Moreira and Gillebert.
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Implications for the Evaluation of LV Systolic Relaxation |
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TopIntroductionLoad Dependence of Relaxation...Load Dependence In Vivo...Implications for the Evaluation...References |
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First, from these conceptual and experimental considerations at both the muscular and the ventricular levels, it remains clear that contraction and relaxation events together with the underlying activation-inactivation processes are part of one and the same activity cycle, hence systole. Diastole defines the events between two such activity cycles and can be characterized from diastolic P-V relations and compliance measurements. By contrast, all measurements or derived indexes related to ventricular relaxation, ie, to LV isovolumetric pressure fall and to early rapid filling, should be considered systolic. Identifying these late-systolic events during LV relaxation as diastolic is, in view of the above considerations of the heart as a muscular pump, not merely a semantic misnomer but rather conceptually inappropriate. Although impaired systolic relaxation may cause an inappropriate upward shift of the diastolic P-V relation and hence may lead to diastolic dysfunction or failure, in the absence of such shifts these late-systolic abnormalities should be considered as a sign of general, often early, systolic dysfunction.
Second, in evaluating these LV relaxation abnormalities, it is
essential that one differentiate between prolonged contraction and
impaired relaxation (Fig 2). This distinction will
follow from a close analysis of rate and timing of relaxation
indexes. Prolonged contraction is due to a delayed onset of relaxation
regardless of concomitant variations in rate; it is
physiological, compensatory, and not by itself
deleterious and does not normally shift the diastolic P-V
relation, at least not at appropriate heart rates. Onset of relaxation
can be modulated by varying systolic (pressure or volume)
loading, by the cardiac endothelium, and by various
drugs. By contrast, impaired systolic relaxation may induce an
upward shift of the diastolic P-V relation, thus leading to
diastolic failure as defined above; it is
pathophysiological and characterized by a
decreased rate or extent of pressure decline and rapid filling. Causes
of impaired systolic relaxation include (1) diminished
intrinsic load dependence due to impaired (in)activation
(Ca2+ handling, sarcoplasmic reticulum function,
contractile protein properties), (2) excessive changes in load, and (3)
inappropriate nonuniformity of load and (in)activation in time and
space. Ironically, since one would not hesitate to label as
"systolic" LV relaxation events with predominant changes
in timing (prolonged contraction), why then, for the same portion of
the cardiac cycle, label as "diastolic" those with
predominant changes in rate (impaired relaxation)?
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Third, a full evaluation of systolic LV relaxation should, therefore, encompass at least three types of measurement: (1) relaxation rate (dP/dt[-], tau, isovolumetric duration, rapid filling rate, E wave, etc), (2) the time interval from the onset of systole to the instant at which these rate indexes were measured, and (3) the rate pattern of the entire relaxation process (initial/early, intermediate/middle, and terminal/late phases of relaxation). As a consequence, frequently used measurements such as peak dP/dt(-), time constant tau of a selected part of isovolumetric relaxation, or early peak filling rate open a too narrow window on the relaxation process. Erroneous conclusions might often be prevented by an appropriate analysis of timing and rate pattern of LV systolic relaxation.
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Footnotes |
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The opinions expressed in this editorial are not necessarily those of the editor or of the American Heart Association.
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References |
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TopIntroductionLoad Dependence of Relaxation...Load Dependence In Vivo...Implications for the Evaluation...References |
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