The Henry Jackson Memorial Lecture

This lecture reviewed selected types of experiments carried out in our laboratory which are relevant to the interpretation of clinical disorders. From an analysis of ventricular pressure pulses, inferences were drawn as to basic determinants of cardiac performance in experimental conditions simulating those which arise clinically. The analysis included alterations in ventricular contraction patterns produced by pericardial effusion, hypervolemia, oligemia, arterial hypertension of peripheral origin and that due to coarctation of the aorta, aortic and pulmonary stenosis, idioventricular rhythms, ventricular alternation, coronary occlusion and myocardial ischemia, aortic regurgitation, and mitral insufficiency.