What Does the Time Constant of the Pulmonary Circulation Tell us about the Progression of Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?

Compliance (C) and resistance (R) maintain a unique, inverse relationship in the pulmonary circulation, resulting in a constant characteristic time [Formula: see text] that has been observed in healthy subjects as well as patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, little is known about the dependence of right ventricular (RV) function on the coupled changes in R and C in the context of this inverse relationship. We...