BACKGROUND Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is frequently seen in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We sought to examine the performance of echocardiography, 6-min walk test (6MWT) distance, distance-saturation product (DSP), and pulse oximetry (SpO2) in detecting underlying PAH in IPF. METHODS 626 lung transplanted patients from February 1990 to December 2007 were consi...

Endomyocardial fibrosis, first described from Uganda by Davies (1948), is a disease of the heart characterized by a fibrosis of the endocardium and subendocardial layers of either the left or right ventricle or both. The fibrosis affects mostly the inflow tracts and the apices of the ventricles, and involvement of the papillary muscles may lead to mitral or tricuspid incompetence. The ventricul...

2014 Right heart catheterization using peripheral venous access is an approach initially used by pioneers of cardiovascular exploration, but subsequently almost forgotten with the popularization of direct puncture techniques of central veins for diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic needs. Improved equipment and the recognition of the complications of direct central (femoral) artery puncture r...

History. We report about the course of central sleep apnea (CSA) in 3 patients (70.3 +/- 15.2 years) with severe aortic stenosis (AS) (AVA </= 1.0 cm(2), NYHA 2.7 +/- 1.4). Investigations. Every patient received echocardiography, left/right-heart catheterization, and cardiorespiratory polygraphy before and 6 months after surgical aortic valve replacement (without right-heart catheterization dur...

background pulmonary arterial hypertension (pah) is a serious complication of unrepaired congenital left-to-right shunts. the final consequence is right ventricular (rv) systolic dysfunction and reversal of shunt. objectives the aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical course and paraclinical findings in a group of patients with pah associated with congenital heart disease (pah-chd). we a...

BACKGROUND Radiation exposure during cardiac catheterization, limited image planes, and poor soft tissue definition are disadvantages of x-ray fluoroscopy that could be overcome with the use of MRI. This study evaluates the feasibility of real-time MRI (MR fluoroscopy) to guide left and right heart catheterization. METHODS AND RESULTS Anesthetized pigs (n=7) with defects of the atrial septum ...

To cite: Callan P, Clark AL. Heart 2016;102:147–157. INTRODUCTION Significant improvements in the diagnostic power and availability of non-invasive cardiac imaging techniques, in addition to evidence of potential harm associated with pulmonary artery (PA) catheterisation in patients in critical care, have led to a decline in right heart catheterisation (RHC) over recent years. RHC, however, rem...

A female infant with unilateral pulmonary agenesis developed congestive heart failure dominated by symptoms of obstructive disease of the airways at 3 1/2 months of age. Cardiac catheterization revealed total anomalous pulmonary venous connection to the right atrium. Despite a massive left-to-right shunt with one pulmonary artery receiving the entire right ventricular output since birth, the pa...

OBJECTIVES To assess whether thermodilution cardiac output determination based on measurement of injectate temperature in vivo leads to more accurate and precise estimates and to study the influence of chilled injectate on test performance. BACKGROUND Cardiac output measurement via right heart catheterization is used extensively for hemodynamic evaluation in a variety of diagnostic, periopera...