Passive Stiffness of Myocardium From Congenital Heart Disease and Implications for Diastole

Abstract

An elevated end-diastolic pressure in pressure-overloaded, but not volume-overloaded, ventricles was related to increased myocardial stiffness. The greater stiffness of pressure-overloaded compared with volume-overloaded myocardium was due to the higher stiffness of both the extracellular matrix and myocytes. The transition from normal to very-low stiffness myocytes may mark irreversible dilatation.