LAUSR

Left ventricular (LV) restoring forces are primed by ventricular deformation during systole and contribute to cardiac relaxation and early diastolic suction. Systolic–diastolic coupling, the relationship between systolic contraction and diastolic recoil, is a novel marker of restoring forces, but the effect of left atrial pressure (LAP) is unknown. We tested preliminary methods of systolic–diastolic coupling comparing mitral annular velocities versus excursion distances and hypothesized a recoil/contraction distance ratio would remain unaffected across varying LAP, providing a surrogate for quantifying LV restoring forces.