Background Coronary perfusion pressure is a combination of proximal perfusion pressure and distal coronary artery pressure resulting from contraction and relaxation of the myocardium and the consequences on the microcirculation. Wave intensity analysis (WIA) defines dominant waves causing coronary filling during the cardiac cycle and allows separation of proximally and distally originating wave...

Monolayer cultures of myocardial cells were prepared by trypsin dispersion of neonatal rat ventricles. The cells were cultured for 4-5 days by which time a synchronously contracting monolayer of some 1.0 x 10(6) cells per 6-cm diam petri dish had formed. The contraction frequency and Na influx of the cells were unaffected by tetrodotoxin (2 x 10(-5) mg/ml) but both were markedly reduced by the ...

Vascular spasm has been considered to be an important component of the eclamptic state. If this abnormal vascular reactivity affects the coronary arteries in eclampsia, one might expect to find areas of myocardial contraction band necrosis, a lesion secondary to coronary reflow after periods of no flow. We reviewed the cardiac findings in the 34 patients with fatal eclampsia (hypertension, edem...

BACKGROUND Phase imaging derived from equilibrium radionuclide angiography presents the ventricular contraction sequence. It has been widely but only indirectly correlated with the sequence of electrical myocardial activation. OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the specific relationship between the sequence of phase progression and the sequence of myocardial activation, contraction and conduct...

BY ITS very nature, significant disease of the coronary arteries results in regional ischemia or infarction, with sparing of other areas of the heart. Therefore, it is intuitively reasonable that assessment of the consequences of ischemic events on cardiac contraction would be best reflected in regional myocardial performance. On the other hand, if a regional contractile abnormality is sufficie...

Background In clinical practice, perfusion, viability and systolic myocardial function are fundamental to the evaluation of ischemic patients. Deformation of muscle expresses active contraction and can be represented by strain in various directions. Improvements to the “DENSE” technique, “Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes”, have shown high accuracy warranting its application to clini...

The echographic isovolumic contraction time (ICT) of the left ventricle (LV) was measured in order to assess alterations of LV performance in children with various forms of cardiac disease. The echographic ICT was defined as the interval between coaptation of the anterior and posterior mitral valve leaflets and aortic cusp opening. Four groups of patients were evaluated: normal (48); LV myocard...

The objective was to study the relationship between preoperative blood levels of N-terminal segment B-type natriuretic peptide precursor (NT-proBNP) and ultrasound thermodilution indicators cardiac function before after on-pump surgery for aortic stenosis, as well evaluate prognostic significance biomarker in relation postoperative myocardial dysfunction. Materials methods . involved 27 patient...

BACKGROUND We tested the hypothesis that rest asynergy in collateral-dependent myocardium correlates with coronary steal. METHODS AND RESULTS PET with [13N]ammonia measured myocardial blood flow and flow reserve in 15 patients with symptomatic chronic ischemic heart disease. Coronary angiography assessed stenosis severity and collateral blood supply. Echocardiography or contrast ventriculogra...