BACKGROUND Cardiac structure and function are well-studied in Western countries. However, epidemiological data is still scarce in China. METHODS Our study was conducted in the framework of cardiovascular health examinations for the current and retired employees of a factory and their family members. According to the American Society of Echocardiography recommendations, we performed echocardio...

Functional tricuspid regurgitation (FTR) is characterized by structurally normal leaflets and is due to the deformation of the valvulo-ventricular complex. While mild FTR is frequent and usually benign, patients with severe FTR may develop progressive ventricular dysfunction and incur increased mortality. Therefore, FTR should not be ignored, should be appropriately diagnosed and quantified by ...

background: successful rehabilitation of cardiac surgery patients should include consideration of their sexual activity, but there is paucity of data regarding this matter. objective: this study determined the incidence and type of sexual dysfunction in our patients. materials and methods: two hundred-seventy nine men with age under 70 years old who had coronary artery bypass graft (cabg), valv...

BACKGROUND An unequivocal diagnosis of myocarditis and cardiac virus persistence is based on histological, immunohistological, and molecular biological analyses of endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs). Biopsy-based diagnosis of myocarditis has become increasingly important because recent studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of biopsy-based causal treatment strategies (immunosuppressive or...

Aortico-left ventricular tunnel is extremely rare congenital paravalvar communication between the aorta and the left ventricle. Usually it is treated surgically. In addition to the surgery the tunnel can be closed by percutaneous transcatheter intervention in appropriate patients. We present in this paper 7 months, 10 years, and 1,5 months old three male cases with aortico-left ventricular tunn...

purpose: the aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of endoscopic neurosurgery for patients with third ventricular colloid cysts without ventriculomegaly. methods: seventy-one patients with third ventricular colloid cysts were identified and recruited to this study. eighteen of these patients did not have concomitant hydrocephalus and underwent primary endoscopic...

Patients with complete transposition of the great arteries (TGA) treated by Senning procedure have a higher risk developing heart failure due to: a) additional work load systemic (morphologic right) ventricle (sRV), b) arrhythmias, mainly caused surgical implications at atria as well c) worsening tricuspid regurgitation. We present unique case female patient who developed all these complication...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES We sought to assess the prognostic value of exercise-induced left ventricular systolic dysfunction in hypertensive patients with normal resting echocardiography and absence of coronary artery disease. METHODS From our database of patients referred for treadmill exercise echocardiography, we identified 93 hypertensive patients with preserved resting left ventricular...

RATIONALE Both fusion and fission contribute to mitochondrial quality control. How unopposed fusion affects survival of cardiomyocytes and left ventricular function in the heart is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE We investigated the role of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1), a GTPase that mediates mitochondrial fission, in mediating mitochondrial autophagy, ventricular function, and stress resist...

t-wave oversensing occurs when the counter starts giving dual beeps for every cardiac cycle instead of one. this usually happens when the monitoring lead displays a tall t wave, which is also sharp. r wave sensing algorithms of the devices do not sense t wave because the slow rate of the t wave is much less than that of the r wave. but the slow rate of t waves may change with time and also beca...