Ventricular wall bulge and oxygen consumption in stunned myocardium modeling

Reversible dysfunction of the myocardium after a single or multiple episodes of coronary artery occlusion is termed myocardial stunning. In this study, the hypothesis that stunning could best be represented by an increase in resting length and a concomitant decrease in maximum available muscle force in the stunned region was examined by means of a mathematical model. Hemodynamic measures were found to be similar to those of experiment data, thus supporting the model validity. Oxygen consumption was found to slightly increase as paradoxically observed in experiments. The model explains this as increased heat production while external work decreases with stunning.