OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to assess whether the presence or absence of myocardial viability during dobutamine echocardiography (DE) predicts survival in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. BACKGROUND In patients with CAD, the presence of myocardial viability during DE identifies viable myocardium and predicts recovery of LV ...

OBJECTIVES This study investigated whether the technitium-99m sestamibi (MIBI) washout rate (WR) would predict mitochondrial damage and myocardial dysfunction in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). BACKGROUND Myocardial mitochondrial damage reduces adenosine triphosphate production, resulting in myocardial dysfunction. Increased myocardial (99m)Tc-MIBI washout is reportedly caused by ...

I t has been over 30 years since Rubler et al. (1) described four diabetic patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), normal coronary arteries, and no other etiologies for CHF and proposed that it was due to diabetic cardiomyopathy. Eight years ago, I reviewed the evidence for diabetic cardiomyopathy as a unique entity unassociated with coronary artery disease and concluded that diabetic car...

Correspondence to: Dr A Sigurdsson, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Ostra Hospital, 416 85 Gothenburg, Sweden. Chronic heart failure is characterised by varying degrees of symptoms and high mortality mainly from progressive myocardial failure and sudden death. Increased understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms has shown that heart failure is progressive and characterised b...

OBJECTIVES The present study was performed to investigate 1) whether aerobic exercise training prior to myocardial infarction would prevent cardiac dysfunction and structural deterioration and 2) whether the potential cardiac benefits of aerobic exercise training would be associated with preserved morphological and contractile properties of cardiomyocytes in post-infarct remodeled myocardium. ...

Background. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) increases the risk of myocardial ischemia, followed by increased perioperative risk of cardiovascular morbidity. We investigated whether reducing caloric intake reduces ischemic injury and myocardial dysfunction and affects the protective effects of the volatile anesthetic sevoflurane in diet-induced T2DM rats. Methods. Rats received a western (WD) or...

BACKGROUND Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction is a well-recognized condition and confers worse outcomes in septic patients. Echocardiographic assessment by conventional parameters such as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is often affected by ongoing changes in preload and afterload conditions. Novel echocardiographic technologies such as speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) have ...

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide (NO) plays a vital role in vascular homeostasis and in the pathophysiology of coronary heart disease. Its metabolites, nitrite and nitrate, have vasculoprotective properties, whereas peroxynitrite, an oxidant metabolite of NO, is cytotoxic and can aggravate myocardial damage during ischaemic reperfusion injury. Peroxynitrite nitrates free and protein bound tyrosine resid...

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a major cause of sudden cardiac death in adolescence, and may lead to heart failure at any age. However, significant heterogeneity in the clinical course and phenotypic expression exists. Next to left ventricular hypertrophy, an impaired myocardial blood flow (MBF) during stress and inefficient cardiac metabolism are other characteristics of HCM. Studies usi...