FRANK STARLING MECHANISM ON ALTERNATING PUMP VENTRICULAR MODELS

An alternating pump system simulating the left ventricle in a mechanical cardio-vascular model, has been modified to show Frank Starling regulating mechanism. An inextensible thin plastic wall chamber has been put around the syringe's core and connected to the internal syringe's chamber by two lateral holes. During the filling and the expulsion phases the external chamber changes his volume and the net output depends on the filling pressure. The regulating mechanism shows a beat to beat response and the dependence of systolic aortic pressure, systolic ventricular work, stroke output with respect ventricular filling pressure show a "physiological" behavior. This solution will be introduced in the mechanical whole model to study the changes of aorto-ventricular interaction by changing aortic compliance.