OBJECTIVE To determine cardiac manifestations in primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS). METHODS Echocardiographic examination was undertaken in 64 patients (62 women, two men) with primary SS (54 definite (DSS) and 10 probable (PSS)) who had systemic symptoms. Twenty one healthy women volunteers of similar age acted as controls. RESULTS Acute exudative pericarditis occurred in only one patient. A...

Pericardium is a biomaterial widely used for covering the outflow tubes of glaucoma drainage devices. Recently, glycerol preserved cornea has been introduced as an alternative that offers durability and improved cosmesis because of its clarity. We retrospectively reviewed 262 patients in the University of Alabama Birmingham Glaucoma Service who underwent shunt procedures using either cornea tis...

We studied the effects of the right ventricle (RV) and pericardium on left ventricular (LV) diastolic pressure-volume (P-V) relations in the normothermic isolated blood-perfused dog heart. Studies were performed at a constant heart rate (atrial pacing at 120 beats/min) with a coronary perfusion pressure of 100 mm Hg. LV volume was directly controlled by an intraventricular balloon, whereas RV f...

O CONGENITAL ABSENCE of the pericardium is a well described but uncommon condition.'`9 In 1959, Ellis et al.2 noted that in the vast majority of cases partial or complete left-sided pericardial defects were present; right-sided or total pericardial absence is extremely rare. Although characteristic roentgenographic findings are usually present in congenital absence of the pericardium, clinicall...

The manner in which the pericardium adapts to chronic cardiac dilation is not known. Recent work from our laboratory indirectly suggested that the size of the pericardium and/or its pressure-volume relation was altered by chronic cardiac enlargement. To examine this question further, we compared pericardial pressure-volume and stress-strain relations, surface area, mass, and average thickness i...

Although autologous pericardium has been used in pedicled fashion for various reconstructive procedures in congenital cardiovascular surgery with the expectation that it will be able to grow and remain viable after implantation, no clinical study has evaluated the histological characteristics of implanted pedicled pericardium long after previous implantation. We describe herein histological fin...

INTRODUCTION Traditional Chinese medicine offers several theories to explain the mechanism of acupuncture. One of these theories proposes that acupuncture points and meridians have unique electrical properties and their electrical skin impedance is lower than surrounding areas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in electrical skin impedance between PC4 and the pericardium mer...

In the intact animal, it is difficult to discriminate between the independent effects of series and direct ventricular interaction (DI) or the individual contributions of the pericardium and septum to DI. Left ventricular (LV) venous return (LVVR) and right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic pressure (RVEDP) were varied independently in a right-heart bypass model. LV minor-axis diameters were measu...

OBJECTIVE This study was to evaluate the efficacy of the hyaluronic acid (HA) bioabsorbable membrane combined use with both expanded-polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) and autologous pericardium for preventing postoperative pericardial adhesions. METHODS The HA bioresorbable surgical membrane (Seprafilm, Genzyme, Cambridge, Mass) was used with either ePTFE or autologous pericardium in an experim...

Calcification is a frequent cause of the clinical failure of bioprosthetic heart valves fabricated from glutaraldehyde pretreated bovine pericardium (GATBP). An investigation was made of the grafting of different molecular weight polyethylene glycol (PEG 600, 1500, 4000 and 6000) via glutaraldehyde (GA) linkages to bovine pericardium (BP) and of their stability and calcification. The process of...