Pressure overload

Pressure overload refers to the pathological state of cardiac muscle in which it has to contract while experiencing an excessive afterload. Pressure overload may affect any of the four chambers of the heart, though the term is most commonly applied to one of the two ventricles. Chronic pressure overload leads to concentric hypertrophy of the cardiac muscle, which can in turn lead to heart failure, myocardial ischaemia or, in extreme cases, outflow obstruction.