the clinical and economic importance of heart failure is widely recognized.   the incidence of heart failure is on the increase, particularly with the aging of the population around the world.   it is time for a paradigm shift in heart failure management. alternative non-pharmacological strategies to remodel the failing ventricle will shape a major portion of heart failure therapy in the decade...

background: we compared the outcomes in patients with a low ejection fraction (ef) and multivessel coronary artery disease (cad) who either underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (cabg) or received medical treatment (mt) after a viability study via dobutamine stress echocardiography (dse). methods: we considered patients with cad and left ventricular ejection fraction (lvef) <40% who were re...

objectives the aim of this study was to investigate the relation between respiratory muscle strength and the severity of chf, and the influence of respiratory muscle strength on abnormal ventilation during exercise in chf patients. conclusions respiratory muscle strength is related to the severity of chf, and associated with rapid and shallow ventilation or excessive ventilation during exercise...

conclusions we believe that the sh state in chf patients may be associated with the impaired pattern of circulating emps, with the predominantly increased number of apoptotic-derived microparticles. background subclinical hypothyroidism (sh) is diagnosed biochemically by the presence of normal serum free thyroxine concentration, in conjunction with an elevated serum thyroid-stimulating hormone ...

conclusions this is the first case report of a vanishing tumor in the right pulmonary apex. case presentation such masses have been designated as vanishing tumors of the lung. it is extremely rare that a vanishing tumor occurs in the apex of the lung. introduction in patients with acute heart failure, pleural fluid localized in an inter-pleural fissure produces a mass on chest x-ray, which mimi...

conclusions in the setting of acute left ventricular function depression in hocm, a comprehensive differential diagnosis should be established. treatment should be based on hemodynamic changes. after recovery, the prognosis is related to hocm. case presentation we present a unique case where tks occurred in a middle-aged male patient with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (hocm) without a...

We have found that cardiac temperature proportionally changes O(2) cost of contractility, defined as O(2) consumption for myocardial total Ca(2+) handling normalized to contractility in terms of the end-systolic pressure-volume ratio (maximal elastance, E(max)), in the canine left ventricle (temperature sensitivity, Q(10) = 2). We have separately found that a decrease in the recirculation fract...

To characterize the pump function of the left atrium, we determined the instantaneous pressure-volume relation of the isolated supported left atrium. A physiologic after-loading system for the low-pressure atrium was created by coupling it to a real-time computer-simulated ventricle and a simulated venous impedance network via a volume servo-pump. In 10 atria loaded with such systems, multiple ...

Trivial to mild tricuspid regurgitation is commonly seen in patients with a normal right heart. It usually asymptomatic and when severe enough may cause symptoms of right-sided heart failure such as ascites, edema congestive hepatopathy. We present case 46-year-old female who presented progressive bipedal edema. Transthoracic echocardiography showed dilated atrium ventricle regurgitation. Patie...