DIASTOLIC FILLING CHARACTERISTICS IN THE STAGE-12 TO 27 CHICK-EMBRYO VENTRICLE

Cardiac output is affected by the diastolic filling characteristics of the ventricle. We hypothesized that the relative contributions of passive and active filling change as the ventricle develops from a smooth-walled tube to a trabeculated four-chamber heart. In stage 12 to 27 white Leghorn chick embryos, we simultaneously measured ventricular pressure with a servo-null micropressure system and dorsal aortic and atrioventricular velocities with a 20-MHz pulsed-Doppler velocity meter. The analog waveforms were sampled at 500 Hz and converted to digital format via an analog/digital board. We partitioned diastole into passive and active components. The passive phase began with the return of the pressure curve to baseline and extended to the onset of the a-wave. The active phase began with the upstroke of the atrial velocity curve and extended to the upstroke of the ventricular pressure curve at end-diastole. Data are presented as mean +/- SEM (n greater-than-or-equal-to 6 at each stage) and analyzed by analysis of variance and regression analysis. At similar cycle lengths ranging from 480 to 600 ms (p > 0.05), end-diastolic pressure increased from 0.24 +/- 0.02 mm Hg at stage 12 to 0.55 +/- 0.01 mm Hg at stage 27. Passive and active filling volumes were 92 (0.0038 +/- 0.0005 mm3) and 8% (0.0004 +/- 0.0002 mm3), respectively, at stage 12 and changed to 24 (0.23 +/- 0.08 mm3) and 76% (0.62 +/- 0.08 mm3), respectively, at stage 27. The ratio of passive to active filling volume decreased from 7.89 to 0.35. Thus, active ventricular filling became dominant as the trabeculae formed in the embryonic ventricle. These observations define the diastolic filling characteristics of the embryonic heart during primary cardiac morphogenesis.