OBJECTIVE To determine if an early regular cardiac rehabilitation program would have an adverse effect on myocardial function after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHOD Patients who received percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after AMI were divided into the exercise group and control group in accordance with their willingness to participate. Patients in the exercise group (n=18) re...

BACKGROUND Myocardial recovery after ventricular assist devices (VAD) is rare but appears more common in nonischemic cardiomyopathies (NICM). We sought to evaluate left ventricular (LV) end diastolic diameter (LVEDD) for predicting recovery after VAD. METHODS AND RESULTS NICM patients receiving long-term mechanical support between 1996 and 2008 were reviewed. Subjects were divided into 3 grou...

OBJECTIVE To explore the therapeutic effect and safety of target-dose metoprolol in treating chronic heart failure (CHF) patients complicated with diabetes mellitus (DM). Method s : One hundred and fifty-four elderly patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group (n=77), which were treated with target-dose metoprolol and conventional therapy, and routinely treated ...

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of atorvastatin intervention on plasma N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and inflammatory cytokine levels in patients with heart failure (HF). One hundred and twenty-three HF patients were selected from our hospital and randomly divided into control (N = 61) and observation (N = 62) groups; the former received conventional trea...

OBJECTIVE To identify the risk factors that could predict postoperative outcome after aortic valve replacement in pediatric patients with isolated aortic regurgitation (AR). BACKGROUND There is controversy regarding the appropriate timing of surgery in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with isolated AR. In the pediatric age group, there are limited studies in this regard and most...

We aimed at observing the effects of high thoracic epidural anesthesia (HTEA) on cardiac structure and function, heart rate variability (HRV), and QT interval variation (QTV) in ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) patients with chronic heart failure. We divided 30 ICM patients into HTEA (N = 16) and control (N = 14) groups.The control group was treated with medication, and the HTEA group was treated ...

Methods We performed CMR in 24 patients with idiopathic nonischemic cardiomyopathy (16 men, mean age 58±11 years) and also in 12 healthy volunteers as control subjects. T1 mapping was performed with post-contrast Look-Locker gradient echo. Baseline echocardiography as well as hemodynamic and metabolic data were collected at the time of CMR. Patients were followed over a median time of 8 months ...

BACKGROUND Although many electrocardiographic abnormalities have been reported previously, prolonged QTC interval represented as the most important ECG finding in patients with liver cirrhosis. Echocardiography can detect structural cardiac abnormalities in cirrhotic patients. OBJECTIVES The present study aimed to determine the correlation between QTC prolongation and echocardiographic findin...

BACKGROUND In some patients with nonischemic idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), left ventricular (LV) dysfunction improves spontaneously but can recur. The factors predicting recurrence of LV dysfunction in recovered idiopathic DCM are poorly defined. We investigated the clinical, echocardiographic, and laboratory variables affecting recurrence of LV dysfunction in patients who recovered ...

Catestatin was discovered as a potent inhibitor of catecholamine secretion and plays important roles in the cardiovascular system. Our previous study demonstrates a close relationship between catestatin levels and prognosis of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Using the same population, the goal of this study is to investigate the ability of catestatin to predict left ventricular (LV)...