A 56-year-old patient with severe pulmonary hypertension developed severe tricuspid regurgitation, right-sided heart failure, and congestive hepatopathy. She was transferred for possible lung transplant and/or tricuspid valve surgery. Clinical and echocardiographic assessment provided confidence that acute tricuspid valve failure was responsible for the decompensation and that tricuspid valve r...

A rare presentation with rapidly progressive right heart failure due to tricuspid inflow obstruction (simulating right-sided valvular heart disease) caused by a non-coronary cusp sinus of Valsalva aneurysm with small perforation is reported. The aneurysm was causing ball valve obstruction at the tricuspid valve, leading to dilated right atrium and back pressure changes which were relieved after...

heart failure is a clinical syndrome characterized by the inability of the heart to provide nutrient supply to tissues. in 75% of cases, the underlying pathology causing heart failure in patients with cardiac death is coronary heart disease. a rabbit model of heart failure with coronary ligation was produced to mimic coronary heart disease in humans. after producing the model, two arteries and ...

Background In left ventricular heart failure, blood will congest backwards to the pulmonary circulation and result in an increased pulmonary vascular resistance. If the increase in pressure result in impaired gas exchange due to pulmonary oedema, the pulmonary blood will redistribute to better ventilated areas in order to maintain adequate gas exchange[1]. This might affect the pulsatility of t...

A patient with a phaeochromocytoma and severe left ventricular heart failure caused by a catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy is described. The clinical signs of congestive heart failure resolved rapidly on treatment with captopril and myocardial performance became normal within two weeks of medical treatment with captopril for one week and with captopril in combination with phenoxybenzamine fo...

mitochondria play an important role in energy production for the cell. the proper function of a myocardial cell largely depends on the functional capacity of the mitochondria.  therefore it is necessary to establish a novel and reliable method for a non-invasive assessment of mitochondrial function and metabolism in humans. although originally designed for evaluating myocardial perfusion, 99mtc...

It is generally stated that the spleen rarely if ever enlarges sufficiently to become palpable in uncomplicated congestive heart failure. Rolleston (1908) and Held (1919) both concluded that a palpable spleen in congestive failure was due to some complication. Talley and Lindsey (1924) in 198 cases ofcongestive failure in adults found 3 with palpable spleens. Fishberg (1940) in discussing the q...

AIMS Surgery in patients with infective endocarditis (IE) can be elective (upon completion of antibiotic treatment) or urgent (before antibiotic treatment has ended) when the clinical course is unfavourable. However, urgent surgery for left-sided endocarditis is associated with high mortality. The aims of this study were to describe the profile of patients with left-sided endocarditis who under...

background: selenium (se) is an essential trace element mainly obtained from seafood, meat, and cereals. se deficiency has been identified as a major contributing factor in the pathogenesis of certain congestive heart failure (chf) syndromes. since there is controversy over the prevalence of se deficiency among patient with chf, the aim of this study was to assess the serum se concentrations in...

conclusions the hormonal levels were low in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. however, the prognostic significance of different hormonal deficiencies was not clear in our study populations who were receiving standard therapies for heart failure and had a relatively stable clinical condition. results except for testosterone level, the levels of gh, igf-1, t3, and t4 concentrations...