BACKGROUND Open access echocardiography has been evaluated in the United Kingdom, but hardly in the Netherlands. The echocardiography service of the SHL-Groep in Etten-Leur was set up independently from the regional hospitals. Cardiologists not involved in the direct care of the participating patients evaluated the echocardiograms taken by ultrasound technicians. AIMS We estimated the reducti...

OBJECTIVE To determine ventricular remodeling (VR) and the role of clinical and functional variables in patients with normal cardiac function who underwent right ventricular apical pacing (RVAP). METHODS Among the 268 consecutive patients with standard pacemaker due to complete atrioventricular block (CAVB), those with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 55% and left ventricular end-d...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the usefulness of echocardiography in managing patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and identify risks of mortality and heart failure re-admissions during follow up. DESIGN A descriptive prospective hospital based study. SETTING Muhimbili National Hospital and Hindul Mandal Hospital in Dares Salaam, Tanzania. SUBJECTS 360 patients (198 male and 162 female) a...

1024x768 normal 0 false false false en-us x-none fa background : heart failure is a common health problem with poor prognosis. the gold standard for diagnosis is echocardiography but it is not always reachable, especially in emergency conditions. nt-pro-brain natriuretic peptide (nt-probnp) is a novel indicator for the diagnosis of heart failure and is being used in routine tests in emergency r...

A 65-year-old woman underwent total correction of tetralogy of Fallot with closure of ventricular septal defect, right ventricular outflow patch, pulmonary valve replacement and tricuspid valve repair. Pacemaker implantation using epicardial electrodes was simultaneously needed because she had complete atrioventricular block. The postoperative course was excellent. Eighteen months postoperative...

Correspondence to: Malissa J Wood, MD, Cardiac Ultrasound Laboratory VBK 508, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA; mjwood@partners.org _________________________ C ardiomyopathies and their resultant systolic and diastolic heart failure remain a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of heart failure continues to increase and it r...

Left ventricular hypertrabeculation/noncompaction (LVHT) is an uncommon type of genetic cardiomyopathy characterized by trabeculations and recesses within the ventricular myocardium. LVHT is associated with diastolic or systolic dysfunction, thromboembolic complications, and arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation, ventricular arrhythmias, atrioventricular block and Wolff-Parkinson-White syn...

conclusions diagnosis of tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy in children is important, since appropriate treatment improves the prognosis. every child with recurrent and persistent palpitation with the first episode of congestive heart failure should be evaluated for tachycardia- induced cardiomyopathy. introduction tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy (tic) is a ventricular dysfunction secondary ...