Dilation and hypertrophy of the atria occur in patients with valvular heart disease especially in mitral regurgitation, mitral stenosis or tricuspid abnormalities. In sub-saharan Africa, rheumatic fever is still the leading cause of valvular heart disease. We report a case of an unusual giant right atrium in context of rheumatic stenosis and severe tricuspid regurgitation in a 58-year-old woman.

Background: Accidents are the second reason for mortality and morbidity in Iran. Among them, brain injuries are the most important damage. Clarification of the effects of brain injuries on different body systems will help physicians to prioritize their treatment strategies. In this study, the effect of pure brain trauma on the cardiovascular system and lungs 24 hours post trauma was assessed. M...

results of the 41 patients with dcm, echocardiography examination revealed 11 patients (27%) without mitral regurgitation and 12 (29%) with mild, 11 (27%) with moderate, and seven (17%) with severe mitral regurgitation. all of the morphological and functional parameters of left ventricle, atrium and mitral valve in dcm patients were greater than those in healthy subjects (all p < 0.05), except ...

an elevated pulmonary artery pressure (pap) from any cause is associated with increased mortality, especially in cases of primary pulmonary arterial hypertension (pah). one of the many reasons behind a bad prognosis is the inherent difficulty in assessing right ventricular (rv) function with reproducible methods. intensive research involving the left heart has made it relatively easy to assess ...

The sinoatrial node, which resides at the junction of the right atrium and the superior caval vein, contains specialized myocardial cells that initiate the heart beat. Despite this fundamental role in heart function, the embryonic origin and mechanisms of localized formation of the sinoatrial node have not been defined. Here we show that subsequent to the formation of the Nkx2-5-positive heart ...

The interaction of the antifibrillatory antiarrhythmic drug, bretylium tosylate, with the muscarinic receptor in tissue homogenates from regions of rat brain and heart was investigated. Competition-binding experiments were carried out with the highly specific tritiated antagonist N-methyl-4-piperidyl benzilate. Bretylium tosylate competitively displaced the labeled antagonist from the muscarini...

An 82-year-old man suffering from shortness of breath for more than 10 days, was diagnosed with acute heart failure, New York Heart Association functional class IV. Grade IV systolic murmur at the apex as well as grade II diastolic murmur over the left second intercostal space and engorged jugular veins were noted on presentation. Transthoracic echocardiography showed an incomplete closure of m...

Stored cardiac pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (pro-ANP) is converted to ANP and released upon stretch from the atria into the circulation. Corin is a serin protease with pro-ANP-converting properties and may be the rate-limiting enzyme in ANP release. This study was aimed to clone and sequence corin in the rat and to analyze corin mRNA expression in heart failure when ANP release upon stretch i...

In this study, semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR analysis showed that estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and beta (ERbeta) mRNAs are developmentally regulated in the rat heart. We found that ERalpha mRNA was low in all heart chambers of 4-day-old rats, but was elevated in the atria (6- to 18-fold) and ventricles (3- to 4-fold) of adult rats. Western blotting analysis confirmed that thes...