BACKGROUND Becker-Kiener muscular dystrophy (BMD) represents an X-linked genetic disease associated with myocardial involvement potentially resulting in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Early diagnosis of cardiac involvement may permit earlier institution of heart failure treatment and extend life span in these patients. Both echocardiography and nuclear imaging methods are capable of detecting la...

Myocardial ischemia which occurs in the absence of chest pain or its equivalents (silent myocardial ischemia) is common in patients with coronary artery disease. Silent myocardial ischemia may also be found in asymptomatic patients, particularly those with underlying risk factors. It is important for physicians to identify the existence of silent myocardial ischemia because it is predictive of ...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have demonstrated that the size and shape of the hyperenhanced areas on contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (ceMRI) were nearly identical to areas of irreversible injury, as defined by histochemical staining. We compared the transmural extent of infarct (TEI), as defined by ceMRI, to the initial ECG findings for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and we also a...

BACKGROUND Dobutamine stress MR (DSMR) is highly accurate for the detection of inducible wall motion abnormalities (IWMAs). Adenosine has a more favorable safety profile and is well established for the assessment of myocardial perfusion. We evaluated the diagnostic value of IWMAs during dobutamine and adenosine stress MR and adenosine MR perfusion compared with invasive coronary angiography. ...

OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the relative accuracy of myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) and low-dose dobutamine echocardiography (LDDE) in predicting recovery of left ventricular (LV) function in patients with a recent anterior wall myocardial infarction (MI). BACKGROUND Left ventricular dysfunction after acute MI may be secondary to myocardial stunning or necrosis. Myocardial c...

BACKGROUND Gated single photon emission CT (SPECT) sestamibi imaging allows the simultaneous assessment of myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate a technique for quantitative regional wall motion assessment using gated SPECT (99m)Tc-sestamibi imaging. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS Fourteen subjects without cardiac pathology and 2...

Abnormal ventricular wall motion is a strong clinical predictor of sudden, arrhythmic, cardiac death. Dispersion in repolarization is a prerequisite for the initiation of re-entrant arrhythmia. We hypothesize that regionally decreased wall motion is associated with heterogeneity of repolarization. We measured local activation times, activation-recovery intervals (ARIs, surrogate for action pote...

AIMS To evaluate the accuracy of echocardiography in conjunction with quantitative high-dose dipyridamole technetium-99m sestamibi tomography (SPECT) in detecting coronary allograft vasculopathy. METHODS AND RESULTS Seventy-eight consecutive heart transplant recipients underwent echocardiography while at rest and high-dose dipyridamole SPECT within 48 h of a yearly angiogram. Resting wall mot...

Modern dynamic image acquisition techniques allow for a non-invasive imaging of the beating heart. Thus, ischemic areas of the heart’s wall can be detected by anlyzing the left ventricular myocardial function. For a standardization of that task the American Heart Association (AHA) has published recommendations for the myocardial segmentation and nomenclature. We propose in this paper a comprehe...

BACKGROUND Adenosine stress magnetic resonance perfusion (MRP) and dobutamine stress magnetic resonance (DSMR) wall motion analyses are highly accurate for the detection of myocardial ischemia. However, knowledge about the prognostic value of stress MR examinations is limited. We sought to determine the value of MRP and DSMR, as assessed during a single-session examination, in predicting the ou...