Coronary flow: effects of myocardial contractile state, LV loading conditions, perfusion pressure and interstitial fluid transport

A comprehensive analytical study of the coronary flow dynamics covering a wide range of left ventricular (LV) operating conditions, including changes in the contractile state of the myocardium, LV loading, coronary perfusion and fluid transport conditions is presented. The integrated model, which also includes transcapillary-interstitial fluid (and mass) transport, is substantiated by available experimental data and predicts correctly the principal characteristics of the coronary flow under the imposed constraints and operating conditions, e.g., the significant dependence of the coronary flow on the contractile state and perfusion pressure and its rather small dependence on the LV pressure at the normal contractile state