| compliance of heart | The reciprocal of passive or diastolic stiffness of the ventricle of the heart, most commonly of the left ventricle; one may distinguish between compliance of the muscle and compliance of the supportive structures, although ordinarily both are considered together (chamber compliance); a hypertrophied or scarred heart will manifest a stiff wall, i.e., decreased compliance. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| specific compliance | The compliance of a structure divided by its initial volume, more specifically for the lungs, the compliance divided by the functional residual capacity. (05 Mar 2000) |
| static compliance | The value obtained when compliance is measured at true equilibrium, i.e., in the absence of any motion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| detrusor compliance | Change in volume of bladder for a given change in pressure. (05 Mar 2000) |
| dynamic compliance of lung | The value obtained when lung compliance is estimated during breathing by dividing the tidal volume by the difference in instantaneous transpulmonary pressures at the ends of the respiratory excursions, when flow in the airway is momentarily zero; this value deviates markedly from static compliance in patients in whom resistances and compliances are not uniform throughout the lung (i.e., uneven time constants). (05 Mar 2000) |
| thoracic compliance | That portion of total ventilatory compliance ascribable to compliance of the thoracic cage. (05 Mar 2000) |
| lung compliance | The pulmonary volume change per unit pressure change. While clearly not a complete description of the pressure-volume properties of the lung, it is nevertheless useful in practice as a measure of the comparative stiffness of the lung. The stiffer the lung, the less the compliance. Compliance is reduced by diseases which cause an accumulation of fibrous tissue in the lung or by oedema in the alveolar spaces. It is increased in pulmonary emphysema and also with age, probably because of alterations in the elastic tissue in both cases. (12 Dec 1998) |