The definition and classification of the cardiomyopathies has been traditionally a complex and quite variable subject. In 2006, the American Heart Association issued a scientific statement elaborated by a task force of experts that contemplated the important development of molecular genetics in recent years, to explain the etiology of the diseases of cardiac muscle, or cardiomyopathies, previou...

Ventricular noncompaction, characterized by numerous, prominent ventricular trabeculations and deep intratrabecular recesses, is thought to be due to an arrest of myocardial morphogenesis. We report eight patients with ventricular noncompaction diagnosed at our center in the previous one year. Two patients had associated congenital cardiac anomalies while the others were without coexisting card...

background: conventional doppler measurements, including mitral inflow and pulmonary venous flow, are used to estimate left ventricular end diastolic pressure (lvedp). however, these parameters have limitations in predicting lvedp among patients with mitral regurgitation. this study sought to establish whether the correlation between measurements derived from tissue doppler echocardiography and...

background : sleep apnea is accompanied by some cardiovascular complications. it has even been hypothesized that sleep apnea, itself, can induce some of these complications. given such controversies, we assessed the left ventricular mass index (lvmi) and systolic pulmonary artery pressure in patients with sleep apnea. methods: through convenience sampling, 56 patients with the obstructive sleep...

Expression of the Wilms' tumor gene Wt1 in the epicardium is critical for normal heart development. Mouse embryos with inactivated Wt1 gene have extremely thin ventricles, which can result in heart failure and death. Here, we demonstrate that Wt1 can be activated in adult hearts by local ischemia. Wt1 mRNA was increased more than twofold in the left ventricular myocardium of rats between 1 day ...

background: we sought to determine the frequency of the risk factors for congestive cardiac failure (ccf) in a tertiary care hospital in peshawar, pakistan. methods: this retrospective, observational study was conducted in the department of cardiology, postgraduate medical institute, lady reading hospital peshawar, from march 2005 to september 2007. relevant information regarding the risk facto...

A rare – or not so condition? Restrictive cardiomyopathies, caused by primary pathologies of the heart muscle, are considered diseases, corresponding to about 5% all cardiomyopathies. The most frequent form restrictive cardiomyopathy is cardiac amyloidosis (CA), which can be a benchmark since, with availability diagnostic technologies, its detection has been made much more frequent, associated ...