Fig. 1.

Conceptualized version of the relationship between left ventricular filling pressures and stroke volume. The normal relationship is depicted by the solid line on the far left. The dotted line is as described for acute myocardial infarction (²⁰), in which the heart is acutely stiff, but not dilated. The line drawn to the far right shows that for heart failure with low ejection fraction and chronic left ventricular dilation; the stroke volume is better as the filling pressures are reduced toward normal levels (⁷).