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1 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, The University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont 05405
The time course of mechanical efficiency during working contractions in rabbit papillary muscle is presented. Efficiency is found to remain relatively constant during the working portion of the twitch, when the muscle is contracting against a constant load. As afterload was decreased, efficiency increased to 65 ± 11% (mean ± SE, n = 3) at 10% developed force at maximum length. This is in contrast to muscle work, which reached a peak of 3.0 ± 0.3 (n = 6) mJ/g at 50% developed force at maximum length.
heart; initial heat; rabbit; working contractions
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