How could catecholamines cause a decreased afterload?
Afterload is the resistance that has to overcome by the ventricle of the heart to eject the blood to the aorta from the ventricle at the time of ventricular contraction
There is inverse relationship between force of contraction (stroke volume) and afterload. When force of contraction of myocardium increase - More amount of blood will be ejected from the ventricle during systole. That increases Stoke volume result in decreased afterload.
Catecholamines like epinephrine and norepinephrine have positive ionotropic effect on heart (myocardium). That means Catecholamines increases the force of contraction thereby increases the stroke volume result in decreased afterload.
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