BACKGROUND Invasive studies have shown that cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) acutely improves left ventricular (LV) systolic performance and lowers filling pressures in a majority of patients with medically-refractory severe heart failure. Measurements included LV volume, ejection fraction, PWD early (E-wave) and atrial (A-wave) velocities, diastolic filling time (DFT), and DTI early dia...

Background Cardiac involvement in systemic light-chain amyloidosis (AL) is characterized by slightly decreased systolic left ventricular function (LV) function and typically a diastolic dysfunction including left atrial (LA) enlargement. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is often performed in AL to accurately assess chambers size and function. We aimed to compare features of LV systolic and dias...

Coronary collaterals preserve left ventricular (LV) function during coronary occlusion by reducing myocardial ischemia and may directly influence LV compliance. We aimed to re-evaluate the relationship between coronary collaterals, measured quantitatively with a pressure wire, and simultaneously recorded LV contractility from conductance catheter data during percutaneous coronary intervention (...

Objective: To evaluate the right and left ventricular systolic and diastolic function in middle aged patients with sickle b thalassaemia. Methods: Forty three patients with sickle b thalassaemia were recruited for echocardiographic study while 55 controls, matched for age and sex, served as the control group. Parameters measured included: dimensions and wall thickness of left (LV) and right (RV...

This study was aimed at elucidating whether ventricular hypothermia-induced dysfunction persisting after rewarming the unsupported in situ dog heart could be characterized as a systolic, diastolic, or combined disturbance. Core temperature of 8 mongrel dogs was gradually lowered to 25 degreesC and returned to 37 degreesC over a period of 328 min. Systolic function was described by maximum rate ...

BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves LV structure, function, and clinical outcomes in New York Heart Association class III/IV heart failure with prolonged QRS. It is not known whether patients with New York Heart Association class I/II systolic heart failure exhibit left ventricular (LV) reverse remodeling with CRT or whether reverse remodeling is modified by the cause of...

OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that an amlodipine-based regimen would have more favorable effects on left ventricular (LV) diastolic function. BACKGROUND Different antihypertensive therapies may vary in their effect on LV diastolic function. METHODS The HACVD (Hypertension Associated Cardiovascular Disease) substudy of ASCOT (Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial) collected detailed cardiov...

During ischemic heart diseases and when heart failure progresses depletion of myocardial energy stores occurs. D-ribose (R) has been shown to improve cardiac function and energy status after ischemia. Folic acid (Fa) is an essential co-factor in the formation of adenine nucleotides. Therefore, we assessed whether chronic R/Fa administration during the development of hypertrophy resulted in an i...

Although exercise training-induced changes in left ventricular (LV) structure are well characterized, adaptive functional changes are incompletely understood. Detailed echocardiographic assessment of LV systolic function was performed on 20 competitive rowers (10 males and 10 females) before and after endurance exercise training (EET; 90 days, 10.7 +/- 1.1 h/wk). Structural changes included LV ...

We hypothesized that left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction assessed by cardiac catheterization may be associated with increased risk for cardiovascular events. To test the hypothesis, we assessed diastolic function by cardiac catheterization (relaxation time constant (Tau) and end-diastolic pressure (EDP)) as well as Doppler echocardiography (early diastolic mitral annular velocity (e') a...