PV Loops Program for Medical Students - USMLE Exam Compilation

[sozme]

I am a medical student and I'm trying to find a good program that will allow me to draw PV loops like this: http://cvphysiology.com/Cardiac Function/CF025.htm

I know in physics there also PV loops, so I thought someone might have a recommendation of a piece of software that would allow this? Even if its just software used in writing professional looking exams for high school students or whatever, I'm trying to compile USMLE-style physiology questions I've developed into a book for first year medical students.

 

[Yanick]

Those are just graphs of P(V). In principle any plotting software would do it (Excel, gnuplot, sigmaplot etc) but you would need to play with the colors and such to get the presentation how you want it. The biggest problem I foresee, if I were the one trying to put this together, is where you get the actual numbers from? Its not immediately obvious if the diagrams in your link are just arbitrarily drawn to show the concepts or if there are actual functions or data with which you can plot out the examples.

Either way, I doubt you will find such a specialized software to allow you to just click a button and get a diagram. You'll need to plot stuff out using either known functions, known data or just arbitrary numbers for your pedagogical goals. Just my opinion, hope it helps.

 

[edward]

This is just a shot in the dark so to speak. It does describe a PV loop software module.

http://www.hugo-sachs.de/index.php/computer-programs-hardware-software/haemodyn-software/hse-software-modul-to-display-p-v-loops-in-haemodynamic-applications-e-g-millar-or-scisense-p-v-loop-systems.html

 

[sozme]

Those are just graphs of P(V). In principle any plotting software would do it (Excel, gnuplot, sigmaplot etc) but you would need to play with the colors and such to get the presentation how you want it. The biggest problem I foresee, if I were the one trying to put this together, is where you get the actual numbers from? Its not immediately obvious if the diagrams in your link are just arbitrarily drawn to show the concepts or if there are actual functions or data with which you can plot out the examples.

Either way, I doubt you will find such a specialized software to allow you to just click a button and get a diagram. You'll need to plot stuff out using either known functions, known data or just arbitrary numbers for your pedagogical goals. Just my opinion, hope it helps.

The numbers are arbitrary to be honest. I'm just not proficient enough at math to figure out how to get the characteristic shape of these things. Ideally I need to draw a few of them (the before graph, which looks the same in all of my examples and then the after graph - which would represent certain changes - afterload, preload, etc.) Do you have any recommendation for me? I've done quite a bit of googling for relevant formulae

 

[Yanick]

The numbers are arbitrary to be honest. I'm just not proficient enough at math to figure out how to get the characteristic shape of these things. Ideally I need to draw a few of them (the before graph, which looks the same in all of my examples and then the after graph - which would represent certain changes - afterload, preload, etc.) Do you have any recommendation for me? I've done quite a bit of googling for relevant formulae

My recommendation is to read the literature and not just google. I found several papers in a 5 min google scholar search which discuss measuring PV data to construct these loops and some Math which may lead you in the right direction.

 

[sozme]

My recommendation is to read the literature and not just google. I found several papers in a 5 min google scholar search which discuss measuring PV data to construct these loops and some Math which may lead you in the right direction.

Wow you are so helpful. You spent 5 minutes on my query, then decided instead of providing any info after your time investment to instead offer me a worthless suggestion.

I'm looking for a program or a simple method of constructing many of these types of graphs. It isn't the math that is important, just that they have the proper size and shape and can be formatted easily into medical physiology exam questions such as "what causes this..." or "what is represented by point X on this graph?"