Although the pericardium can exert a restraining effect on filling of the normal left ventricle, it is uncertain to what extent the pericardium influences left ventricular filling during chronic volume overload. We measured left and right ventricular pressure and left ventricular segment dimension before and after pericardiectomy over a range of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure from <5 t...

Glossopharyngeal insufflation (GI), a technique used by breath-hold divers to increase lung volume and augment diving depth and duration, is associated with untoward hemodynamic consequences. To study the cardiac effects of GI, we performed transthoracic echocardiography, using the subcostal window, in five elite breath-hold divers at rest and during GI. During GI, heart rate increased in all d...

To develop a method for estimating right ventricular volume and to assess right ventricular volume at rest, we studied 45 persons with equilibrium radionuclide angiography. The study group comprised 15 normal control subjects (5 with atypical chest pain and normal coronary angiograms) and 30 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Each coronary patient and 5/15 control subjects had both rig...

Right ventricular loading leads to diastolic septal flattening in man without necessarily requiring right ventricular pressure to exceed left ventricular pressure. This observation suggested that the unstressed septal configuration is flat and that its normal concave shape is due to the left-to-right transseptal pressure gradient. To examine this hypothesis, we studied septal configuration by t...

Although the pericardium can exert a restraining effect on filling of the normal left ventricle, it is uncertain to what extent the pericardium influences left ventricular filling during chronic volume overload. We measured left and right ventricular pressure and left ventricular segment dimension before and after pericardiectomy over a range of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure from <5 t...

doppler-derived myocardial performance index (mpi), defined as the sum of isovolumetric contraction and relaxation durations divided by ejection time, is an easily measured and reproducible index that shows both systolic and diastolic myocardial function. the goal of this study was to define normal values of right ventricular (rv) mpi in neonates in the first 48 to 72 hours of life. fifty-one q...