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Coronary microcirculation in the beating heart

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Abstract

The phase opposition of velocity waveforms between coronary arteries (predominantly diastolic) and veins (systolic) is the most prominent characteristic of coronary hemodynamics. This unique arterial and venous flow patterns indicate the importance of intramyocardial capacitance vessels and variable resistance vessels during a cardiac cycle. It was shown that during diastole the intramyocardial capacitance vessels have two functional components, unstressed volume and ordinary capacitance. Unstressed volume is defined as the volume of blood in a vessel at zero transmural pressure. In vivo observation of systolic narrowing of arterioles in mid-wall and in subendocardium indicates the increase in resistance by cardiac contraction.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Drs. Matsumoto T, Toyota E, Tachibana H, Mochizuki S, Kataoka N, Nakamoto H, Goto M, Tsujioka K and for their collaboration in this study. Thanks are also given to Ms. Izushi for her help in the preparation of this manuscript, and to NH for his English correction. This study was partly supported by Grants-in-Aid for Science Research (17200033) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Engineering, Kawasaki Medical School, 288 Matsushima Kurashiki, Okayama, 701-0193, Japan

    Fumihiko Kajiya, Toyotaka Yada, Osamu Hiramatsu & Yasuo Ogasawara

  2. Department of Radiological Technology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Yousuke Inai

  3. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Masahito Kajiya

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  1. Fumihiko Kajiya
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  2. Toyotaka Yada
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Correspondence to Fumihiko Kajiya.

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Kajiya, F., Yada, T., Hiramatsu, O. et al. Coronary microcirculation in the beating heart. Med Biol Eng Comput 46, 411–419 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-008-0335-x

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