due to the intrinsic property of myocardium that is responsible for the frank-starling mechanism, the heart can automatically accommodate an increase in venous return, at any heart rate. the mechanism is of functional importance because it serves to adapt left ventricular output to right ventricular output. if this mechanism did not exist and the right and left cardiac outputs were not equivalent, blood would accumulate in the pulmonary circulation (were the right ventricle producing more output than the left) or the systemic circulation (were the left ventricle producing more output than the right).