BACKGROUND Chronic right ventricular (RV) apical pacing may lead to left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony and LV dysfunction. In heart failure due to RV pacing, upgrading to biventricular stimulation (CRT) can improve NYHA Class and LV function. A proportion of patients do not respond to upgrading. Aim was to assess whether etiology of LV dysfunction accounts for responses to CRT in RV-paced patie...

BACKGROUND There is an increasing interest in the role of adipocytokines in cardiovascular pathophysiology. AIM The aim of the study was to compare visfatin levels, a novel adipokine, in patients with heart failure (HF) due to the left ventricular systolic dysfunction with those in age- and body mass index (BMI) - matched healthy controls in relation to the parameters of glucose metabolism an...

BACKGROUND In acquired heart disease, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-Terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are increasingly used as diagnostic and prognostic markers. In adult congenital heart disease, the abnormal anatomy and physiology complicate assessment of cardiac function. We studied the clinical correlates of measurement of natriuretic peptides (NP) in adults with a ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to define predictors of cardiac compression development including clinical, electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, chest-X-ray and perioperative parameters and their diagnostic value. METHODS Overall 243 patients with pericardial disease, among them 123 with compression (tamponade, constriction) and 120 without signs of compression were included in the stu...

The numerous controlled clinical trials performed recently in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) can allow us to abandon a clinical-based treatment strategy and adopt an evidence-based therapy. The treatment algorithm is restricted to patients in NYHA class III or IV. The different treatments have been evaluated mainly in sporadic, idiopathic PAH and in PAH associated with scleroderma or to ...

The present study is the first report of the effectiveness of sorafenib in the treatment of pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD). A 66-year-old woman with PVOD was started on sorafenib. After 3 months of treatment with a maximum dosage of 400 mg/day sorafenib, there was an improvement in the patient's New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class from IV to III. However, because of seve...

OBJECTIVES Vitamin D deficiency and hyperparathyroidism are common in patients with heart failure (HF). There is a growing body of evidence supporting the role of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in cardiac remodeling and worsening of HF. Lack of reliable automated testing of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D), the biologically active metabolite of vitamin D, has limited its contributi...