AIMS To assess whether contractile reserve during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) can predict left ventricular functional recovery in patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy and to assess myocardial fibrosis by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in these patients. METHODS Nine patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy were enrolled. All patients underwent DSE and were followed for six mo...

The estimation of dynamically evolving ellipsoids from noisy lower-dimensional projections is examined. In particular, this work describes a model-based approach using geometric reconstruction and recursive estimation techniques to obtain a dynamic estimate of left-ventricular ejection fraction from a gated set of planar myocardial perfusion images. The proposed approach differs from current ej...

INTRODUCTION Right ventricular apical pacing-related heart failure is reported in some patients after long-term pacing. The exact mechanism is not yet clear but may be related to left ventricular dyssynchrony induced by right ventricular apical pacing. Right ventricular septal pacing is thought to deteriorate left ventricular function less frequently because of a more normal left ventricular ac...

Echocardiographic (echo) measurements of left ventricular ejection phase indices--ejection fraction, percent shortening of the minor diameter (%deltaD), and velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (Vcf)--are said to be accurate reflections of their angiographic (angio) counterparts. Most studies correlating echo and angio left ventricular function parameters have included relatively few pa...

This study sought to investigate whether the presence of right ventricular systolic dysfunction with pre-existing left ventricular systolic dysfunction is associated with higher plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, compared with patients with isolated left ventricular dysfunction. Eighty-five patients referred for evaluation of isotopic ventricular function were prospectively included...

Rate-corrected left ventricular ejection time was measured from the aortic pressure tracings of 171 catheterised patients with aortic valve area less than or equal to 1.2 cm2. In 50 patients with pure aortic stenosis, left ventricular ejection time in increased with decreasing valve area and was significantly higher (468 +/- 5 ms, mean +/- SEM) than in 13 normal subjects (435 +/- 5 ms). Additio...

BACKGROUND In patients with drug resistant incessant supraventricular tachycardia, radiofrequency induced ablation of the atrioventricular junction and pacemaker implantation have hitherto been considered a treatment of last resort. OBJECTIVE To assess the short and long term effects of ablation of the atrioventricular junction on systolic and diastolic left ventricular function in patients w...

we assessed different systolic cardiac indices to detect left and right ventricular systolic dysfunction in cirrhotic patients before liver transplantation. between 2010-2011, 81 consecutive individuals with confirmed hepatic cirrhosis who were a candidate for liver transplantation were enrolled in this study. a total of 32 age and sex matched healthy volunteers were also selected as the contro...

Ten normal male volunteers received either TOO mg alprenolol or placebo in a double-blind randomized trial. Ninety minutes later they performed a standardized Valsalva manoeuvre 40: mmHg airway pressure for 12 seconds. Beat-to-beat measurements were made of heart rate, left ventricular ejection time (LVET), ejection time index (ETI), and' corrected ejection time' (LVET/Vye). After placebo, hear...