Regulation of Cardiac Contraction

Primary emphasis in this review will be placed o n recent significant ad­ vances in the following four areas: Biochemical integration in the myocardial cell (page 47). Structure-function relations in the contractile units of muscle and heart (page 156) . Methods for the assessment of ventricular function (page 161). Factors which affect the performance of the mammalian heart (page 71) . Important topics largely omitted which have received comprehensive review elsewhere include Mommaerts' review of the energetics of muscular contraction (1), Young's analysis of the molecular basis of muscular con­ traction (2), the review by Katz on contractile proteins of the heart (3) , Korner's review of integrated neural control mechanisms (4) , Johnson & Lieberman's analysis of excita tion-contraction coupling and the structure of the sarcotubular system (5) , and Levy & Berne's review of cardiac neural control and the coronary circulation (6).