Heart failure affects an estimated 5.7 million Americans, and almost 300,000 people die from heart failure in the United States each year [1]. Patients with end-stage heart failure become severely disabled because of dyspnea at rest or with minimal exertion, despite maximal medical therapy. Symptoms that typify heart failure, including shortness of breath and fatigue, also have been shown to be...

Recent outstanding clinical advances with new mechanical circulatory systems (MCS) have led to additional strategies in the treatment of end stage heart failure (HF). Heart transplantation (HTx) can be postponed and for certain patients even replaced by smaller implantable left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). Mechanical support of the failing left ventricle enables appropriate hemodynamic st...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the impact of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support on survival and quality of life in inotrope-dependent heart failure patients ineligible for cardiac transplantation. BACKGROUND The role for LVADs as a bridge to cardiac transplantation has been established, but data supporting their role as permanent therapy in nontransplant candidates are limited. ...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) implanted in patients with severe congestive heart failure (CHF) as a bridge to transplantation have been shown to reverse chamber enlargement, regress cellular hypertrophy, and increase contractility. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the molecular changes associated with increased contractility after LVAD support...

Acute myocardial infarction is a rare event in a patient with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). We present a case of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in a LVAD patient.

Sildenafil can be used for the management of right ventricular failure after left assist device (LVAD) implantation. However, usefulness sildenafil on subpulmonic morphological ventricle (pLV) has not been reported. This study reported haemodynamic effects pLV LVAD

Chronic unloading of the failing heart with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) can decrease cardiac mass and myocyte size and has the potential to improve contractile function. To study the effect of chronic ventricular unloading on myocardial gene expression, a microarray (U133A, Affymetrix) profiling gene expression was compared before and after LVAD support in seven patients with idiopa...

Heart failure is associated with remodeling that consists of adverse cellular, structural, and functional changes in the myocardium. Until recently, this was thought to be unidirectional, progressive, and irreversible. However, irreversibility has been shown to be incorrect because complete or partial reversal can occur that can be marked after myocardial unloading with a left ventricular assis...

We describe three alternative approaches for the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) outflow graft during implantation of the LVAD. The supraceliac abdominal aorta, innominate artery and left axillary artery were employed as alternative sites for the LVAD outflow graft in the setting of a heavily calcified ascending aorta or a hostile chest wall and mediastinum. The first approach involved th...

Objectives Although right ventricular failure (RVF) is a major concern after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, methodologies to evaluate RV function remain limited. Liver stiffness (LS), which is closely related to right-sided filling pressure and may indicate RVF severity, could be non-invasively and repeatedly assessed using transient elastography. Here we investigated the s...