Heart Failure Tutorial

1. What is heart failure?
2. What is the incidence and prognosis for heart failure?
3. List several conditions that can cause heart failure.
4. What is systolic dysfunction in heart failure?
5. How does systolic dysfunction alter ventricular stroke volume, end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes, and ejection fraction?
6. What is the role of the Frank-Starling mechanism in cardiac compensation to reduced inotropy?
7. What changes in signal transduction mechanisms might cause systolic dysfunction?
8. What alterations in excitation-contraction coupling mechanisms might cause systolic dysfunction?
9. What is diastolic dysfunction?
10. What role might altered sarcoplasmic reticulum function play in diastolic dysfunction?
11. How does ventricular hypertrophy affect diastolic function?
12. How does diastolic dysfunction affect ventricular stroke volume, ventricular end-diastolic volume and pressure, and ejection fraction?
13. What neurohumoral changes occur in heart failure?
14. How does the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system served as a compensatory mechanism in heart failure?
15. How does atrial natriuretic peptide serve as a counter regulatory mechanism to the renin-angiotensin-system?
16. By what mechanism does heart failure cause either pulmonary or systemic edema?

Revised 11/03/06