BACKGROUND The effective aortic regurgitant orifice area varies with aortic pressure in animal models of acute aortic regurgitation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the aortic regurgitant orifice area changes during diastole in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation. METHODS AND RESULTS Two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography were performed immediately before and a...

To determine the frequency, clinical and laboratory associations of pulmonary hypertension in Iraqi Kurds with sickle cell anemia, a total of ninety four such patients attending a major hemoglobinopathy center in Iraqi Kurdistan were enrolled. All patients were re-evaluated clinically and had their blood counts, HbF, serum ferritin, LDH, renal and liver function assessed. Transthoracic Doppler ...

Background: liver cirrhosis with respiratory failure is frequent cause of admission in critical care unit. Sometime no etiological factor other than hepatopulmonary syndrome is labelled. Does pulmonary arterial hypertension matters in hepatopulmonary syndrome? Aim: To assess the frequency of pulmonary hypertension among liver cirrhosis patients presenting with respiratory failure at Critical ca...

Cardiac morbidity, early mortality, and sudden death are the major consequences of sickle cell disease (SCD) in patients surviving into adulthood. Pulmonary hypertension (PH), elevated tricuspid regurgitant jet velocity (TRV), and diastolic dysfunction have all been identified to correlate with early mortality in adults with SCD. However, the unifying pathophysiology behind these abnormalities ...

U ntil recently, the prevalence and characteristics of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in adults with sickle cell disease remained uncertain. In previous studies, the prevalence of PH, as defined by a tricuspid valve regurgitant jet velocity (TRJV) of o2.5 m?s, has been reported as high as 30% [1, 2]. However, in these studies, the diagnosis of PH was not systematically confirmed on right heart cat...

BACKGROUND Children with primary pulmonary hypertension (PHT) are a high-risk group who require assessment by cardiac catheterization under anaesthesia. Complications, including death, have occurred during anaesthesia in these patients, but the true risk has not been quantified. METHODS The clinical records of children with PHT undergoing general anaesthesia for pulmonary vascular resistance ...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Indications for thrombolysis in normotensive patients with pulmonary embolism (PE), based on the presence of right ventricular (RV) overload during transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), are controversial. We checked whether the monitoring of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) might help in risk stratification by detecting patients with RV myocardial injury. PATIENTS AND DESIGN We stud...

Although recent studies show an improved survival of children with sickle cell disease in the US and Europe, for adult patients mortality remains high. This study was conducted to evaluate the factors associated with mortality in adult patients following the approval of hydroxyurea. We first evaluated the association between selected variables and mortality at an academic center (University of ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), to compare clinical characteristics, radiographic scores, pulmonary function, and echocardiographic parameters in patients with and without PH, and to correlate echocardiographic findings with clinical characteristics, radiographic scores, and pulmonary function. METHODS This was a pros...