Understanding Guyton’s Venous Return Curves

For fifty years, Guyton's venous return curves and their interpretation, presented in virtually every heart physiology text, have instructed as much as puzzled many students. Senior Associate Editor David Kass, leading expert John Tyberg (University of Calgary), and authors Daniel Beard (Medical College of Wisconsin) and Eric Feigl (University of Washington) set the record straight on how to understand basic cardiovascular physiology of the circulation, venous return into the heart, and the control of cardiac output. Medical students, physiologists, and physicians take note:  getting the pressure-volume relationship right has never been more important.

 

Daniel A. Beard and Eric O. Feigl. Understanding Guyton's Venous Return Curves Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published online ahead of print June 10, 2011; doi:10.1152/ ajpheart.00228.2011.