Cardiac output (known as âQâ) is a measure of the amount of blood that is pumped out of the heart in one minute. âQâ specifically refers to the amount of blood pumped out of the left ventricle as this is the ventricle that supplies blood to the muscles and organs of the body.
Preload is defined as the actual stretch or tension on the ventricular myocardium prior to contraction (Totora & Gabowski 2002). The greater the preload on the myocardium (the larger the amount of blood that has filled the heart during diastole), the greater the contraction will be.
cardiac preload. ventricular end-diastolic volume. cardiac pressure load. the stress of working against an elevated blood pressure in the arterial circuit; one of the two major groups of causes of heart disease; the other is flow load.ee cardiac valve laceration (above). cardiac valves. heart valves formed by evaginations of the cardiac and vascular endothelium supported by connective tissue; includes atrioventricular and semilunar valves on both sides of the heart. cardiac valvular disease. see valvular disease.