OBJECTIVES In this study, we evaluate the incidence of and analyse the pre and intraoperative risk factors for the development of postoperative renal dysfunction (PRD), and the impact of such an event on perioperative mortality and on hospital length of stay. In addition, we sought to investigate the influence of a mildly increased serum creatinine (1.3-2.0 mg/dl) on perioperative mortality and...

Background—Potential cardiac donors show various degrees of myocardial dysfunction, and the most severely affected hearts are unsuitable for transplantation. The cause of this acute heart failure is poorly understood. We investigated whether alterations in calcium-handling proteins, b-adrenoceptor density, or the inhibitory G protein Gia could account for this phenomenon in unused donor hearts ...

Hypocalcemia is a curable cause of myocardial dysfunction and clinical congestive cardiac failure, with only stray reports available in literature. We describe 15 infants presenting with severe left ventricular dysfunction, who were found to have hypocalcemia with or without hypomagnesemia. Vitamin D deficiency was identified as the main cause of hypocalcemia. These children improved on supplem...

Myocardial deformation (strain) analysis may be done through echocardiography from data obtained by tissue doppler technique or two-dimensional images from speckle tracking, allowing the calculation of longitudinal, circumferential and radial deformations of myocardial fibers.1,2 Myocardial strain analysis has recently been used in the evaluation of regional myocardial movement and function and...

Cardiomyopathy To The Editor: We note with interest Nagueh et al’s1 recent observation that the reduction of tissue Doppler (TD) velocities in mitral annulus excursion was highly sensitive and specific for the detection of individuals carrying hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)–causing mutations in HCM families, even in the prehypertrophic phase. Any clinical tool that can reliably identify subt...

Background: Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction (SIMD) occurs in 50% of septic patients and is characterized by reduced ejection fraction (EF), cardiac index, impaired contractility, diastolic (DD). In sepsis-induced cardiomyopathy (SICM), EF shows initial significant deterioration on the 1st day, then final improvement at end study. This study evaluated value different parameters measured wi...

AIM To determine if Color Doppler myocardial imaging could provide evidence of diastolic dysfunction in patients with hypertension whose pulse-wave Doppler parameters were normal. METHOD The study included 33 patients (mean age 48+/-7.3 years) and a control group of 13 sex- and age-matched healthy individuals. Patients were divided into two groups according to mean blood pressure (BP) values ...

Echocardiographic evidence has suggested abnormalities of the myocardial function in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. In this work the cardiac function in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and in normal volunteers was evaluated. Twenty four normal volunteers and 21 patients with ankylosing spondylitis aged 18-45 were studied. None had overt cardiac disease. Cardiac function was assessed...

During the past decades, advances in percutaneous coronary intervention and antithrombotic therapy have improved the prognosis of patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, in a substantial number of STEMI patients, myocardial perfusion remains impaired despite successful recanalization of the infarct-related epicardial coronary artery, and this scenario has been...

Severe ischemic injury or infarction of myocardium may cause activation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and damage the interstitial matrix. However, it is unknown whether MMP activation and matrix damage occur after moderate ischemia and reperfusion that result in myocardial stunning without infarction, and if so whether such changes contribute to postischemic myocardial expansion and contr...