Fig. 3.

Chronic Co²⁺ treatment reduces fractional shortening in the absence of cardiac remodelling in vivo. a (i) Echocardiogram showing M-mode traces in the parasternal short-axis view of the left ventricle (LV) performed in control rats (n = 3) and Co²⁺ treated rats (n = 6) as indicated. ESD end-systolic diameter, EDD end-diastolic diameter, AW anterior wall, PW posterior wall. a (ii) Table comparing the echocardiographic parameters of ventricular performance between control and Co²⁺-treated groups. a (iii) Histogram comparing fractional shortening between control and Co²⁺-treated groups at 7 days and 28 days. b Represents the heart weight and left ventricular weight of rats in the control group and Co²⁺-treated group. Data are presented as the ratio of heart weight and left ventricular weight to body weight ± SEM, (two-sample t-test, *p < 0.05 with respect to control)