Windkessel Effect
Property of elastic cavities under pressure. By absorbing a pressure increase under wall strain and volume increase, they can reduce the following pressure drop again by elastic volume reduction.
Since the heart only responds during [systole, systolic] If the blood is thrown out, the circulation in the arterial streambed would almost stand still during the diastole, which would be fatal for organ perfusion on the one hand and would enormously increase heart work on the other, since the entire blood column would have to be accelerated from rest with every beat.
With the help of the windkessel effect, short-term pressure fluctuations can be smoothed more or less. It determines the level of diastolic blood pressure in the circulatory function to a significant degree. In the frame of arteriosclerotic Changes may result in loss of elasticity in the aorta and a restriction of the wind boiler function.