Symptoms of congestive heart failure frequently reflect abnormalities in both systolic and diastolic performance. While much work has been reported regarding the mechanisms by which positive inotropic and vasodilator therapy affect systolic performance, little is known about their effect on diastolic function. In 12 patients with diffuse congestive cardiomyopathy micromanometer left ventricular...

BACKGROUND Acute kidney injury (AKI) following heart surgery is associated with long-term risk of heart failure. It is not known if AKI following valvular heart surgery is associated with early changes in cardiac function or structure. METHODS A cohort study was conducted on 201 patients with AKI and 201 patients without AKI after valvular heart surgery, who were matched for age, sex, left ve...

OBJECTIVES We sought to investigate the impact of six months of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) on echocardiographic variables of left ventricular (LV) function. BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy has recently been introduced as a new therapeutic modality in patients with advanced heart failure (HF) and conduction abnormalities. However, most studies have only investigated t...

Although it has been proposed that incomplete relaxation explains certain increases in left ventricular end diastolic pressure relative to volume, there has been no clear demonstration that incomplete relaxation occurs in the intact working ventricle. To identify incomplete relaxation, left ventricular pressure-dimension relationships were studied in 10 canine right heart bypass preparations du...

Background: Cardiac dysfunction due to chronic anemia and hemosiderosis are the major causes of death among patients with thalassemia intermedia. This study was performed to compare the cardiac function in thalassemia intermedia patients with normal subjects by means of echocardiography. Materials and Methods: This was a case-control study performed on 22 patients affected by thalassemia int...

BACKGROUND Identification of individual factors associated with high defibrillation threshold (DFT) seems to be of high clinical importance. Impedance cardiography (ICG) may be used for non-invasive evaluation of the haemodynamic status. Whether ICG parameters may improve identification of patients with high DFT has not yet been examined. AIM To evaluate clinical risk factors of high DFT incl...

BACKGROUND Beta-2 microglobulin (B2M) is considered as a surrogate marker for middle molecule uremic toxins and a key component in dialysis-related amyloidosis. However, few studies have evaluated role of B2M in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of plasma B2M level with some metabolic and cardiac performance factor...

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) may induce epicardial coronary artery diseases and left ventricular myocardial damaging as well. Left ventricular dysfunction was found in DM2. In this research, we compared the left ventricular dysfunction of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus as well as normal controls using the volume-time curve of cardia...