Fig. 5
(With permission from [55])
Modified afterloaded contractions recorded in experiments with muscle samples from the left ventricular myocardium of a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy. From top to bottom: intracellular calcium transient, muscle length (ML), and force. The muscle is allowed to contract against predefined loads and as the end-systolic shortening is reached it is restretched at constant velocity to its initial length. “0” indicates isometric contractions; “3”, an afterloaded contraction against an afterload of 40% of maximal isometric force; and “5”, an isotonic contraction against passive resting force