Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world. Early detection ofventricular dysfunction is an essential part of combating this crisis. Pressure and volume loop analysis has served as a powerful model for determining heart function, but their usability is limited by their dependency on volume. The goal of this thesis is to find a method of assessing systolic function without the use of volume. The hypothesized systolic function surrogates are derived by calculating the area within the curve of the following three cardiac cycle plots: 1) dP/dt vs ?, 2) dP/dt vs 1/P, 3) dP/dt vs t/P - where t is the time of each heart beat. Since the pressure gradients within the heart are the driving factors of mechanical function as well as the direct result of muscle contraction these plots were theorized to shed a new outlook on the hearts performance without the need for volume. A pilot study was conducted in which data from an animal study was utilized. In this experiment acute ischemic right ventricular dysfunction was induced by progressive embolization of microspheres in the right coronary artery. During the systematic induction of ischemia, pressure data points were taken from the left ventricle and used to calculate the area within the respective curves. Linear mixed-effect model analysis was used to assess the relationship between ventricular systolic dysfunction and the respective metrics of interest. This pilot study found that the area within the curve from plot 1 (p=1.67E-31) and plot 2 (p=0.04) showed correlation with ventricular function. The study gave validation to these parameters to be investigated further in a more formal study.