The aim of the present study was to quantify the effect of the pericardium on the left ventricular (LV) diastolic pressure-volume relation. The experiments were done in 10 anesthetized closed-chest dogs. Pericardial and cardiac volumes were determined by computed tomography. Pericardial effusion (n = 5) and volume loading (6% dextran iv; n = 5) were used to increase pericardial volume. Volumes were normalized as multiples of the LV volume measured when LV transmural pressure was 6 mmHg (VLV6). Using the data from the pericardial effusion experiments, we calculated the best-fit exponential equations for the pericardial pressure-volume relations. From these equations we calculated that the changes in pericardial volume necessary to shift the LV diastolic pressure-volume curve upward by 2, 5, 10, and 20 mmHg were 0.6 +/- 0.1, 1.1 +/- 0.2, 1.6 +/- 0.2, and 2.2 +/- 0.3 times VLV6, respectively. Using the data from the volume loading experiments, we also calculated the degree of upward shift of the LV pressure-volume relation caused by volume loading, which increased LV mean diastolic pressure by 12 mmHg. (The upward shift is that increment in pericardial pressure caused by the total increase in volume of the extra-LV contents of the pericardium, i.e., the atria, the right ventricle, and any pericardial effusion.) This volume loading increased the total volume of the right ventricle and the atria by 1.0 +/- 0.1 VLV6, which, in itself, increased pericardial pressure by 3.6 +/- 0.8 mmHg. We conclude that in situations in which heart or pericardial volume increases acutely, the pericardium shifts the diastolic pressure-volume relation of the LV upward by a significant amount.