Myocardial contractility in chickens (Gallus gallus): Analysis of systolic time intervals

The avian cardiovascular system is of special interest because avian hearts are relatively larger than mammalian hearts, and activation of ventricular myocardium in birds has a “flash” pattern. Systolic time intervals and indices of myocardial contractility were examined in anaesthetized open-chest chickens by polycardiography, including synchronous recordings of electrocardiogram, phonocardiogram, and apex cardiogram. The asynchronous contraction time, isometric contraction time, pre-ejection period and ejection time were 26 ± 3 (Mean ± SD), 21 ± 9, 47 ± 12, and 83 ± 23 ms, respectively, for heart rates of 260 ± 57 bpm. The myocardial tension index, isometric contraction index and the pre-ejection period/ejection time ratio were 0.39 ± 0.11, 0.42 ± 0.10, and 0.54 ± 0.14, respectively. A “flash” pattern of ventricular myocardial depolarization causes more rapid excitation and as a consequence shorter asynchronous contraction time of relatively larger chicken hearts compared with rabbit hearts. Inverse relation (P < 0.05) of the asynchronous contraction time to the heart rate in chickens is probably associated with the specific activation pattern of avian ventricles. Establishment of the values of systolic time intervals will facilitate a better understanding of cardiac function in birds. The obtained results are discussed in comparison with the rabbit. The indices calculated from the systolic time intervals show disadvantageous contractile function of chicken heart compared to rabbit heart.