Driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Reversal of coronary flow in aortic regurgitation

Aortic regurgitation (AR) represents the quintessential left ventricular volume overload state. In contrast to mitral regurgitation, where the left ventricle (LV) ejects blood into both the relatively low pressure left atrium and higher-pressure aorta, in AR, the entirety of LV stroke volume is ejected into the relatively higher pressure aorta. The severity of AR is obviously related to the regurgitant volume ejected into the LV during diastole. When severe, the forward stroke volume available for tissue perfusion represents a minority of the cardiac output.
Source: Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research