Arterial haemodynamics on ventricular hypertrophy in rats with simulated aortic stiffness

Aortic stiffness (AS) exerts significant impact on the cardiovascular risks. We developed a new model to produce AS. The purposes were to evaluate the haemodynamic consequence and to correlate the haemodynamic parameters with the extent of ventricular hypertrophy (VH). We applied silicon gel for embedding of the abdominal and/or thoracic aorta. After 1–4 weeks of AS, the left ventricular weight (LVW), LVW to body weight (BW) ratio (LVW/BW), and the morphological changes in cardiomyotes were quantified for VH. We determined the aortic pressure (AP), stroke volume, cardiac output, total peripheral resistance (TPR), characteristic impedance (Zc), pulse wave reflection (P_b) and pulse wave velocity (PWV). Aortic embedding (AE) increased LVW, LVW/BW, systolic and pulse pressure (PP), Zc, P_b and PWV accompanied by decreases in diastolic pressure and arterial compliance. The magnitude of these haemodynamic and cardiac changes were in an order of combined, thoracic and abdominal AE. Correlation analysis revealed that the VH was well correlated with pulsatile haemodynamics such as Zc, PP, P_b and PWV, while less with steady components (Mean AP and TPR). Our results indicate that pulsatile haemodynamic parameters are significantly elevated after AS. The alterations in pulsatile haemodynamics are the major causes leading to VH.