introduction: we aimed to investigate the effect of right bundle branch block (rbbb) on perfusion and functional parameters in dipyridamole stress/rest tc99m-mibi gated myocardial perfusion spect (gspect) which may be helpful in interpretation of myocardial perfusion imaging. methods: we studied 73 patients with low pre-test likelihood of coronary artery disease in two groups:  38 patients with...

discussion the reason is that we assess the relative and not absolute differences of the tracer uptake in this imaging modality. there may be other findings on mpi images which could help us overcome this pitfall, including detecting wall motion abnormalities, lung uptake of the tracer, or transient ischemic dilation. another important issue is the ecg changes during exercise stress testing, wh...

Echocardiography has a central role for the diagnosis and management of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. Besides the fact that it provides an essential role in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with chest pain in the emergency department, echocardiography provides a comprehensive non-invasive haemodynamic and functional assessment of those patients. Stre...

BACKGROUND Ischemic heart disease (IHD) causes more deaths, disability and economic loss in developed and developing countries than any other disease. Our country belongs to the group of countries in transition, and it has seen a continuous growth in mortality and morbidity rates caused by cardiovascular diseases. An early, accurate and fast diagnosis of the myocardial ischemia is the main step...

BACKGROUND The study objective was to evaluate the role of transesophageal echocardiography in identifying the origin of anomalous coronary arteries and confirming their course in relation to the great vessels. The diagnosis of coronary anomalies is made by angiography. The anomalous left main artery with a course between the pulmonary artery and the aorta has been associated with myocardial in...

AIMS To investigate whether myocardial ischaemia elicitable during pharmacological stress echocardiography portends different prognosis in men and women. METHODS AND RESULTS The study group was made by 1733 patients (941 men, 792 women) who underwent dipyridamole (n=1008) or dobutamine (n=725) stress echo for evaluation of known or suspected coronary artery disease. An ischaemic response was ...

BACKGROUND Injury to the circumflex artery after mitral valve (MV) repair or replacement is a recognized complication of this procedure. We designed an echocardiographic method to visualize the course and flow of the circumflex artery, to detect iatrogenic injury to this structure intraoperatively, as well as to predict the coronary dominance pattern in MV surgery patients. METHODS After Ethi...

A previously healthy 61-year-old man presented to the emergency department with chest pain and dyspnoea for 6 hours. Examination revealed distress with an apical pansystolic murmur. Initial electrocardiogram showed sinus tachycardia and ST elevation in leads II, III, and aVF compatible with an inferior ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Point-of-care echocardiography in the emergency departmen...

Background: Despite some evidences about protective or triggering role of opium use in patients with coronary artery disease, the exact role of opium is still under question. The current study aimed to address the relation of opium dependence on the severity and extension of myocardial infarction (MI) and its related mortality. Methods: The study population consisted of 460 consecutive patients...