You would need to use echocardiography and/or electrocardiography machine to measure parameters of heart failure (wall thickness, ventricular pressure e.t.c . Biochemical markers of heart failure and histology of the cardiac muscle could also help.
Depends upon what "effect" you wish to measure. Agreed with Adejoke if you are looking at cardiac remodeling. If simple conduction effects, an ECG might be enough. The two added together, or a paced heart in solution, may be helpful also.