Alterations in Resting Length-Tension Relations of Cardiac Muscle Induced by Changes In Contractile Force

Effects of sustained postextrasystolic potentiation (P.S.), norepinephrine (NE), and calcium on resting length-tension relations of heart muscle were studied in the cat papillary muscle and isovolumic dog ventricle. In papillary muscles, P.S., calcium or NE produced no change in diastolic compliance when the muscles were freely isotonic, or afterloaded, and force remained constant. However, under isometric conditions, P.S. induced a small fall in diastolic tension while systolic force rose. Similar decrements in diastolic tension were observed when force of contraction was augmented by simply increasing afterload from a constant initial muscle length. In the isovolumic ventricle, P.S., NE, and calcium each induced substantial increments in developed pressure, accompanied by small decreases in end-diastolic pressure. The latter was reduced or abolished by augmenting the initial contractile state with calcium or NE, so that the super-imposition of P.S. induced only trivial increments in developed pressure. It is concluded that P.S., calcium, or NE do not induce changes in the resting length-tension relations of heart muscle per se. However, resting length at any given resting tension does increase slightly upon the augmentation of systolic force alone. It is postulated that these findings may be explained by the existence of a series viscous component.