Left ventricular function was assessed in 14 patients with chronic aortic regurgitation by afterload elevation with angiotensin. Seven of 14 patients maintained their resting ejection fraction with angiotensin (group A), while the remaining seven experienced a decline of greater than 0.10 in ejection fraction (group B). Six of seven group A patients showed an appropriate rise in left ventricula...

INTRODUCTION Reversible myocardial depression occurs early in severe sepsis and septic shock. The question of whether or not early ventricular depression or dilatation is associated with lower mortality in these patients remains controversial. Most studies on this topic were small in size and hence lacked statistical power to answer the question. This meta-analysis attempted to answer the quest...

Electrocardiograph-gated blood pool scans (anteroposterior and left anterior oblique projections) were recorded in 30 patients seven to 10 days after myocardial infarction. Left ventricular ejection fractions (mean 0.26 +/- 0.10) were lower on average than values previously obtained in 11 normal subjects (mean 0.52 +/- 0.06) and correlated broadly with the clinical assessment of left ventricula...

Eighteen patients with chronic aortic insufficiency were evaluated hemodynamically and angiographically 8 months after aortic valve replacement. Both the pulmonary artery diastolic pressure and the left ventricular end-diastolic volume decreased significantly (p < 0.001), but the mean ejection fraction and the cardiac output remained identically lowered, though some individual cases showed impr...

Peak aortic blood acceleration is recognized to be a sensitive index of global left ventricular performance. In the present study peak acceleration was assessed noninvasively in patients with a continuous-wave Doppler velocity meter. Peak aortic blood velocity and peak blood acceleration were measured by placing the ultrasonic transducer at the suprastemal notch. Measurements were obtained in 3...

Peak aortic blood acceleration is recognized to be a sensitive index of global left ventricular performance. In the present study peak acceleration was assessed noninvasively in patients with a continuous-wave Doppler velocity meter. Peak aortic blood velocity and peak blood acceleration were measured by placing the ultrasonic transducer at the suprastemal notch. Measurements were obtained in 3...

The effects of aminophylline on pulmonary vascular tone, systemic hemodynamics, and ventricular ejection fractions reported in the literature show some discrepancies. We therefore studied in COPD patients the effects of aminophylline on hemodynamics, on ventricular ejection fractions, and on systolic and diastolic functions of each ventricle, and we measured simultaneously the blood level of th...

Radionuclide measurements of regional left ventricular ejection fraction were evaluated as a quantitative index of regional left ventricular function. Left ventricular regional ejection fractions were derived from background-corrected, time-activity curves in 43 patients assessed by both gated equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography and left ventricular contrast angiography. From a single, m...

Ingested cobalt has previously been associated with the development of a congestive cardiomyopathy. Despite occasional reports of cardiomyopathy after industrial exposure to cobalt, this association remains controversial. In a study of 30 cemented tungsten carbide workers with a mean duration of exposure to cobalt of 9.9 +/- 5.3 years radionuclide ventriculography was performed to study right a...