Fig. 2.  Illustrative examples of right ventricular-arterial coupling at baseline (A  and B ) and after normovolemic hemodilution (C  and D ) with isotonic saline hydroxyethylstarch (NS-HES, A  and C ) or hypertonic saline hydroxyethylstarch (HS-HES, B  and D ). Ees = right ventricular end-systolic elastance, Ea = pulmonary arterial effective elastance. NS-HES did not affect the ventricular-arterial coupling. HS-HES increased the ventricular contractility (Ees) and coupling efficiency (Ees/Ea).