Posted by Joseph Costa Jr on February 26, 2003 at 21:22:25:
In Reply to: Re: Some maze questions posted by Carl Plaskett on February 26, 2003 at 08:02:55:
Carl;
I have seen the term,"atrial kick" many times when doing my pre maze research. A lot of the material was by Cox et al. In any case here is a pretty good definition:
Atrial kick - the contraction of the atria prior to the contraction of the ventricle accounts for more volume (1/3 more) to the ventricle and more muscle stretch. With Starling's Law at play, atrial kick accounts for 15-30% of blood ejected. Note that the older one becomes, the higher the percentage owed to atrial kick. For example, for the elderly with only quivering atria - atrial fibrillation - they are often more effected because as much as a third of their blood supply to ALL of their cells has been eliminated.
Atrial transport has been used synonymously with atrial kick many times.
Good rythyms to you allJoe Costa