AIM Trastuzumab, a chemotherapeutic agent used in the treatment of breast cancer. has been shown to induce subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction during a three to six month period as evidenced by strain echocardiographic examination without any change occurring in the ejection fraction of LV. The present study evaluated the presence of subclinical LV dysfunction using strain echocardiog...

BACKGROUND Circulating subclinical lipopolysaccharide (LPS) occurs in health and disease. Ingesting high fatty meals increases LPS that cause metabolic endotoxemia. Subclinical LPS in periodontal disease may impair endothelial function. The heart may be targeted as cardiac cells express TLR4, the LPS receptor. It was hypothesized that recurrent exposure to subclinical LPS increases mortality an...

Blood pressure (BP) control in hypertensive patients is crucial for reducing the risk of heart failure development and may be particularly important in elderly subjects, who have an especially high prevalence of hypertension and risk of heart failure (1). Left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) is an echocardiographic measure of LV systolic function that can be an indicator of ea...

BACKGROUND It has been shown that mitral stenosis (MS) impairs left ventricular (LV) systolic function; however, this issue has not been studied comprehensively. We aimed to evaluate the role of 2D strain in the assessment of subclinical LV systolic dysfunction in patients with MS. METHODS Seventy-two patients with isolated MS (mild, moderate and severe) and 31 healthy control subjects consti...

Left ventricular (LV) mass and geometry determined by echocardiography have convincingly been shown to predict cardiovascular morbidity and mortality independent of other cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (1–7). For example, in the Framingham Heart Study, subjects $40 years old without clinically apparent CVD who were followed for four years demonstrated a risk factor–adjusted relative ...

Background Myocardial inflammation has been described as a global finding in the acute phase of Kawasaki Disease. Despite normal LV systolic function by routine functional measurements, reduced longitudinal strain (S) and strain rate (SR) have been detected by echocardiography in the acute phase, which may potentially predict late onset heart failure. We aimed to determine whether left ventricu...

OBJECTIVE Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) enables global and regional evaluation of the left ventricle (LV); therefore, it is the most useful method for detecting subclinical dysfunction in patients exposed to cardiotoxic agents. A novel technique triplane (3P) echocardiography also allows single beat assessment of LV global longitudinal strain values. We firstly aimed to demonstrate bo...

OBJECTIVE Preoperative left ventricular systolic function is an important prognostic factor in patients undergoing mitral valve surgery. Preoperative myocardial deformation may be impaired without reduction in conventional indices such as ejection fraction (EF). Strain rate (SR) imaging is very sensitive in detecting regional systolic abnormalities and might allow diagnosis of subclinical chang...

BACKGROUND Sarcomeric gene mutations cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In gene mutation carriers without left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (G + LVH-), subclinical imaging biomarkers are recognized as predictors of overt HCM, consisting of anterior mitral valve leaflet elongation, myocardial crypts, hyperdynamic LV ejection fraction, and abnormal apical trabeculation. Reverse curvature of...