What is Cardiac Afterload?

Cardiac afterload refers to the resistance encountered by the heart during contraction, also known as pressure load.

Cardiac afterload mainly depends on aortic pressure, vascular resistance, blood viscosity, pulmonary artery pressure, etc. Aortic pressure is the main component of cardiac afterload, which is proportional to the resistance during cardiac ejection. Aortic pressure is often used as an indicator of left ventricular afterload in clinic. The increase of cardiac afterload is mainly related to cardiovascular diseases such as vascular diseases, hypertension and atherosclerosis. After the disease, it can lead to increased vascular resistance and increased blood viscosity, thus increasing the load on the heart. Long-term increase of afterload can lead to problems such as cardiac hypertrophy, myocardial strain, and even heart failure in severe cases.

In daily life, we can reduce cardiac afterload and maintain cardiovascular health through reasonable diet and appropriate exercise.