THE EFFECTS OF ACUTELY INCREASED SYSTEMIC RESISTANCE ON THE LEFT ATRIAL PRESSURE PULSE: A METHOD FOR THE CLINICAL DETECTION OF MITRAL INSUFFICIENCY

Abstract

In 1921, Wiggers and Feil in a study of experi-mental mitral insufficiency observed an elevation of left atrial pressure when the aorta was con-stricted (1). This finding has subsequently been confirmed both in experimental animals (2, 3) and in a circulatory model (4). In recent experi-ments "mitral " regurgitant flow was produced and measured by permitting blood to pass from the left ventricle through a flow meter into the left atrium (5). It was observed that with any given mitral regurgitant orifice the regurgitant flow could be substantially increased by elevating the resistance to left ventricular ejection with graded aortic constriction. The experimental observations listed above sug-