Direct Measurement of Left Ventricular Pressure in Man

Abstract

Direct left ventricular pressure measurement has been an accepted routine in physiological and cardiac catheterisation laboratories for many years. In contrast to right heart and pulmonary artery pressure recordings during anaesthesia, very little information is available about the effects of anaesthetics on left ventricular pressure and its derivatives. This is mainly due to the considerable hazards associated with left ventricular measurement, such as accidental coronary artery occlusion. Because of legal and ethical aspects, catheterisation of the left heart for research and monitoring purposes during anaesthesia is no longer justified and has been abandoned by our laboratory. The data presented in this paper have been obtained from studies of the effects of anaesthetics on myocardial blood flow, during which direct measurements of left ventricular pressure were performed to obtain information about contractility under anaesthesia. Using these data we attempt in this paper to demonstrate the different kinds of information which may be derived from left ventricular pressure recording in man.