TY - JOUR
T1 - The thick left ventricular wall of the giraffe heart normalises wall tension, but limits stroke volume and cardiac output
AU - Smerup, Morten Holdgaard
AU - Damkjær, Mads
AU - Brøndum, Emil
AU - Baandrup, Ulrik T.
AU - Kristiansen, Steen Buus
AU - Nygaard, Hans
AU - Aalkjær, Christian
AU - Sauer, Cathrine
AU - Buchanan, Rasmus
AU - Bertelsen, Mads Frost
AU - Østergaard, Kristine Hovkjær
AU - Grøndahl, Carsten
AU - Candy, Geoffrey
AU - Hasenkam, J Michael
AU - Secher, Niels H
AU - Bie, Peter
AU - Wang, Tobias
N1 - © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Giraffes - the tallest extant animals on Earth - are renowned for their high central arterial blood pressure, which is necessary to secure brain perfusion. Arterial pressure may exceed 300 mmHg and has historically been attributed to an exceptionally large heart. Recently, this has been refuted by several studies demonstrating that the mass of giraffe heart is similar to that of other mammals when expressed relative to body mass. It thus remains unexplained how the normal-sized giraffe heart generates such massive arterial pressures. We hypothesized that giraffe hearts have a small intraventricular cavity and a relatively thick ventricular wall, allowing for generation of high arterial pressures at normal left ventricular wall tension. In nine anaesthetized giraffes (495±38 kg), we determined in vivo ventricular dimensions using echocardiography along with intraventricular and aortic pressures to calculate left ventricular wall stress. Cardiac output was also determined by inert gas rebreathing to provide an additional and independent estimate of stroke volume. Echocardiography and inert gas-rebreathing yielded similar cardiac outputs of 16.1±2.5 and 16.4±1.4 l min
-1, respectively. End-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were 521±61 ml and 228±42 ml, respectively, yielding an ejection fraction of 56±4% and a stroke volume of 0.59 ml kg
-1. Left ventricular circumferential wall stress was 7.83±1.76 kPa. We conclude that, relative to body mass, a small left ventricular cavity and a low stroke volume characterizes the giraffe heart. The adaptations result in typical mammalian left ventricular wall tensions, but produce a lowered cardiac output.
AB - Giraffes - the tallest extant animals on Earth - are renowned for their high central arterial blood pressure, which is necessary to secure brain perfusion. Arterial pressure may exceed 300 mmHg and has historically been attributed to an exceptionally large heart. Recently, this has been refuted by several studies demonstrating that the mass of giraffe heart is similar to that of other mammals when expressed relative to body mass. It thus remains unexplained how the normal-sized giraffe heart generates such massive arterial pressures. We hypothesized that giraffe hearts have a small intraventricular cavity and a relatively thick ventricular wall, allowing for generation of high arterial pressures at normal left ventricular wall tension. In nine anaesthetized giraffes (495±38 kg), we determined in vivo ventricular dimensions using echocardiography along with intraventricular and aortic pressures to calculate left ventricular wall stress. Cardiac output was also determined by inert gas rebreathing to provide an additional and independent estimate of stroke volume. Echocardiography and inert gas-rebreathing yielded similar cardiac outputs of 16.1±2.5 and 16.4±1.4 l min
-1, respectively. End-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were 521±61 ml and 228±42 ml, respectively, yielding an ejection fraction of 56±4% and a stroke volume of 0.59 ml kg
-1. Left ventricular circumferential wall stress was 7.83±1.76 kPa. We conclude that, relative to body mass, a small left ventricular cavity and a low stroke volume characterizes the giraffe heart. The adaptations result in typical mammalian left ventricular wall tensions, but produce a lowered cardiac output.
KW - Cardiac output
KW - Echocardiography
KW - End diastolic volume
KW - Left ventricle
KW - Stroke volume
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962588453&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1242/jeb.132753
DO - 10.1242/jeb.132753
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 26643090
SN - 0022-0949
VL - 49
SP - 457
EP - 463
JO - Journal of Experimental Biology
JF - Journal of Experimental Biology
IS - 3
ER -