BACKGROUND Right ventricular (RV) dilatation that occurs as a consequence of RV infarction is thought to produce hemodynamic instability by reducing left ventricular (LV) preload and compliance. We hypothesized that these geometric changes may also adversely affect LV systolic performance. METHODS AND RESULTS Twelve 40-kg pigs were studied. Integrated conductance catheters and micromanometers...

The anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery - known as Bland-White-Garland syndrome - is a rare congenital malformation that affects 1 in 300,000 live births. Most patients die in infancy without any surgical treatment. Some patients who survive past childhood often have varying symptoms such as myocardial ischemia, impaired left ventricular function, mitral regur...

This paper considers the effects of the pericardium on a mechanical model of the heart. The model, based on the theory of large elastic deformation, makes use of experimental data for the pericardium reported herein. INTRODUCTION The pericardium is the tough fibrous sac enclosing the lean of most vertebrates, including man. It serves to .told the heart in a fixed position and to isolate and xot...

Background: Ultrasound imaging is an effective and routine diagnostic tool for identifying fetal anomalies. The congenital defect of Pentalogy of Cantrell, also known as Thoracoabdominal Ectopia, consists of 5 defects that include a cleft lower sternum, an anterior diaphragmatic defect, and the absence of the parietal pericardium, a connected or separate omphalocele, and a major cardiac anomaly...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate, using echocardiography, the functioning of the mitral valve apparatus in patients submitted to standardized bovine pericardium chordae implantation to substitute ruptured chordae tendineae or elongated chordae with a significant degree of thinning. METHOD Standardized bovine pericardium chordae were implanted in 23 patients with mitral va...

PURPOSE There is increasing evidence that epicardial fat (i.e., adipose tissue contained within the pericardium) plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Obtaining the epicardial fat volume from routinely performed non-enhanced cardiac CT scans is therefore of clinical interest. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of automatic pericardium segm...

BACKGROUND Bovine pericardium is one of the most widely used materials in bioprosthetic heart valves. Immunologic responses have been implicated as potential causes of limited durability of xenogenic valves. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of decellularization and α-galactosidase (α-gal) to remove major xenoreactive antigens from xenogenic tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS Recomb...

During pulmonary artery constriction (PAC), an experimental model of acute right ventricular (RV) pressure overload, the interventricular septum flattens and inverts. Finite element (FE) analysis has shown that the septum is subject to axial compression and bending when so deformed. This study examines the effects of acute PAC on the left ventricular (LV) free wall and the role the pericardium ...

Hydro generation scheduling is a nonlinear programming problem. This paper describes the hydro generation scheduling problem constraints. The optimal hydro scheduling problem is formulated as a large scale linear programming algorithm and is solved using a commercially available linear programming package. The selected objective function requires minimization of demand and generation of a hydro...