Diastolic Filling of the Beating Excised Heart

¹ From the Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

The excised rat heart placed in saline was found to propel itself with each systole provided the auricles were opened. Jet propulsion resulted from systolic ejection of fluid from the aorta. Thus the excised heart has been shown to draw in fluid during diastole and to eject fluid in systole. Inherent elasticity of the heart was demonstrated in the non-beating rat heart which could draw in fluid following release of compression from an external source. It was concluded that part of the energy of systole was dissipated in diastole.