Describe Starling’s Law of the Heart

Starling’s law states that ‘the greater the volume of blood entering the heart during diastole,
the greater the volume of blood pumped out during systole’. This means that as more blood
enters the heart during diastole, the contraction during systole is stronger so that the heart
compensates for the increase in blood entering by ejecting more blood out of the heart.

As a greater volume of blood enters, the myocardial cells are stretched and the muscle fibers
are shortened so that the myofilaments are closer together. This leads to stronger cross
bridge formation and therefore stronger contraction so more blood is ejected from the heart.
This mechanism will occur in an isolated heart (ie. it is an intrinsic property of the heart).