Constitutive stress--strain relations for the myocardium in diastole

The importance of stress-strain myocardial constitutive relations is that they provide a criterion for behavior in vivo. Our purpose was to develop constitutive equations which are valid in diastole. The myocardium was assumed to be composed of a nonlinear viscoelastic, inhomogeneous, anisotropic (transversely isotropic) and incompressible material operating under adiabatic and isothermal conditions. The expressions contain five moduli. Two are fixed by the restriction of incompressibility, one is estimated, the remaining two refer to directions along and perpendicular to a fiber. Both possess a bimodal variation with intermodal switching occurring in late rapid filling and diastasis. They are functions of time and material constants. These constants can be observed. A dynamic test is suggested. Constitutive statements complete a set of equations sufficient for the solution of a class of boundary value problems. One type is formulated. They also permit the determination of stress from measured strain. Examples are given.