laplace law?? - drangel2014

[ArchivalUser]

can someone explain this law to me.. its making my brain melt...

p = 2T/r ??

[ArchivalUser]

Tension = Pressure * Radius / Thickness

Tension in a wall of an artery or the heart is kept constant. Usually with these equations, keep things on the left as constant. So, if there is an increased pressure within the heart. That would mean that the right side of the equation got bigger. A compensation must occur on the right side in the remainder of the variables to lower the value of the right side back to the lower tension value, which is kept constant. In this case, Radius would be decreased and thickness would be increased to decrease R/T (since pressure had increased), so that tension would remain the same in scenarios where pressure would increase in the heart. This is the basis of wall thickening and radius of the lumen getting smaller seen in concentric hypertrophy of the heart in response to an increase in pressure.

[ArchivalUser]

Also, I think you are even more confused because you've multipled tension by thickness in your equation and turned it into 2T, the two T's stand for different things. Not only that, but if they stood for the same thing, T * T = T squared lol