The Heart and Circulation: An Integrative Model

What drives the circulation? In this comprehensive review of existing circulation models, the conventional view that the heart is a pressure-propulsion pump is challenged. The existing models fail to explain an increasing number of observed circulatory phenomena.

A unifying circulation model is proposed in which the blood, responding to metabolic demands of the tissues, is the primary regulator of cardiac output. This new model arises from accumulated clinical and experimental evidence. The ...