Background: Little is known about the relation between the extent of microvascular damage and infarct size in patients after successful mechanical reperfusion of acute myocardial infarction. Objective: To compare the spatial extent of reduced myocardial signal between real time myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) after successful mec...

Although left ventricular thrombi that form acutely after myocardial infarction frequently resolve spontaneously or with anticoagulant therapy, the fate of left ventricular thrombi in patients with remote myocardial infarction or with idiopathic cardiomyopathy remains unknown. To determine the natural history of such chronic left ventricular thrombi, we performed serial echocardiograms on 51 pa...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the relation between the extent of microvascular damage and infarct size in patients after successful mechanical reperfusion of acute myocardial infarction. OBJECTIVE To compare the spatial extent of reduced myocardial signal between real time myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) after successful mec...

Introduction Since ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI), which causes ventricular dysfunction, is strongly associated with the prognosis, the prevention of remodeling is an important therapeutic concern in the management of myocardial infarction. Ventricular remodeling is usually determined by infarct size, ventricular loading condition, and infarct artery patency. Although r...

The mortality rate from myocardial infarction is disproportionately high in diabetic patients. One explanation for this may be that diabetic patients incur more extensive myocardial necrosis. This possibility was examined in a three part study. Firstly, peak serum aspartate aminotransferase concentrations of all diabetic and non-diabetic patients admitted with myocardial infarction over a 16 ye...

Background and Purpose—To determine the importance of emboli not trapped by carotid angioplasty filtration devices, we examined fragments 100 m released with ex vivo angioplasty and asked if fragment composition and size correlated with brain injury. Methods—Human carotid plaques (21) were excised en bloc, and ex vivo carotid angioplasty was performed. Eight plaques were selected as either high...

Interrelationships among left ventricular (LV) size, LV function, and heart size were investigated in 49 patients studied 2-12 months after myocardial infarction. LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) and ejection fraction (EF) were determined by biplane ventriculography. Heart size was estimated from chest films by the cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) and cardiac volume (CV) methods. Ventricular function (i...

BACKGROUND Preconditioning (5 minutes of ischemia followed by 10 minutes of recovery) renders the heart very resistant to infarction from subsequent ischemia. This study tests whether adenosine receptors might mediate preconditioning protection. METHODS AND RESULTS We examined the effect on infarct size of pretreatment with either of two adenosine receptor antagonists in both control and prec...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although the risks associated with heavy drinking for increased stroke and neurodegenerative changes are well established, the effects on the brain of low to moderate alcohol intake are unclear. Subclinical cerebral abnormalities identified on MRI have been associated with neurocognitive decline and incident stroke. We examined the associations of alcohol intake with MRI-...

Significance of imaging The concept of “1-3-6-12 day rule” was recently mentioned as a consensus approach for recommendations for anticoagulation in patients with cerebral ischemic event, either transient ischemic attack or stroke. As mentioned by the authors, the initiation of anticoagulation in these patients depends on various factors. However, the decision to initiate or restart the anticoa...