Hypercholesterolemia is a risk factor for the development of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Nevertheless, there are few studies aimed at determining the effects of dietary compounds on early or mild cardiac hypertrophy associated with dyslipidemia. Here we describe left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy in 12 week-old Apo E(-/-) hypercholesterolemic mice. The LV end diastolic posterior wall thickness ...

To estimate the hypertrophic sites of the left ventricle by body surface mapping (MAP), we performed MAP in 55 patients with hypertension and compared the MAP data with echocardiographic findings. MAP data were analyzed using the departure map technique reported by Flowers et al. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the normal control were obtained from 40 normal volunteers. We constructed d...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the 24-h blood pressure profile in normoalbuminuric type 2 diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted in 90 type 2 diabetic patients with a urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER) <20 microg/min on two occasions, 6 months apart (immunoturbidimetry). Patients underwent clinical and laboratory evaluations. Ambulatory blood pressure m...

OBJECTIVE To look for correlations between lung function and cardiac dimension variables in morbidly obese patients, in order to test the hypothesis that the relative size of the small airways is independently correlated with left ventricular hypertrophy. METHODS This was a retrospective study involving 192 medical records containing a clinical protocol employed in candidates for bariatric su...

BACKGROUND The differentiation of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) from hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy (H-LVH) on the basis of morphological information obtained by conventional echocardiography is occasionally problematic. We investigated whether strain rate (SR) imaging derived from tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is able to discriminate HCM from H-LVH. METHODS AND RESULTS Conventi...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Patients on chronic hemodialysis have a high prevalence of heart disease and poor self-reported physical function. The association between structural heart disease and self-reported physical function in patients on hemodialysis is unknown. METHODS We studied the association between elevated pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) and self-reported physical function in ESRD i...

Background—Noninvasive cardiac evaluation is of great importance in transgenic mice. Transthoracic echocardiography can visualize the left ventricle well but has not been as successful for the right ventricle (RV). We developed a method of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to evaluate murine RV size and function. Methods and Results—Normoxic and chronically hypoxic mice (FIO250.11, 3 weeks...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate changes in left ventricular function and the impact of ventricular hypertrophy and pressure gradient early and late after aortic valve replacement in patients with isolated aortic stenosis. DESIGN 41 patients with isolated aortic stenosis and normal systolic function underwent cross sectional and Doppler echocardiography two months before and two weeks and four years aft...

We studied how the ratio (K) of the internal:external diameter of human femora follows the biomechanical optima derived earlier by other researchers for marrow-filled tubular bones with circular cross section and minimum mass designed to withstand yield and fatigue, or stiffness, or bending fracture, or impact strengths. With evaluation of radiographs of 107 femora from 57 human mummies the val...

OBJECTIVE Understanding the determinants of subclinical atherosclerosis may aid in elucidating the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and guide prevention strategies. In this pilot study, we investigated the role of aortic wall thickness as a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis, assessed a method by which to measure aortic wall thickness using MRI, and attempted to define differences in aortic ...