OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to find whether Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) could assess the myocardial interstitium in patients suffering from systemic amyloidosis with normal left ventricular ejection fraction. METHODS Twenty Six patients in whom systemic amyloidosis was confirmed by kidney biopsy were investigated. Five patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction w...

Cardiac performance is normally determined by architectural, cellular, and molecular structures that determine the heart's form, and by physiological and biochemical mechanisms that regulate the function of these structures. Impaired adaptation of form to function in failing hearts contributes to two syndromes initially called systolic heart failure (SHF) and diastolic heart failure (DHF). In S...

BACKGROUND We sought to compare quantification of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction by different gated myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) programs with each other and to magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. METHODS N = 100 patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease were examined at rest with 99 mTc-tetrofosmin gated MPS and cardiac MR imaging. Left ventricular end-diastol...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the accuracy and reproducibility of contrast echocardiography versus tissue harmonic imaging for measurements of left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) compared to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS Digital echo recordings of apical LV views before and after intravenous contrast were collected from 110 consecutive patients. Magnetic resonance i...

BACKGROUND The effect of withdrawal of digoxin on left ventricular function in patients with a history of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) following normalization of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) with beta blockers remains unknown. HYPOTHESIS This study was undertaken to determine the effect of digoxin withdrawal on left ventricular function in patients with IDCM. METHOD...

CONTEXT The heart failure (HF) syndrome is heterogeneous. While it can be defined by ejection fraction (EF) and diastolic function, data on the characteristics of HF in the community are scarce, as most studies are retrospective, hospital-based, and rely on clinically indicated tests. Further, diastolic function is seldom systematically assessed based on standardized techniques. OBJECTIVE To ...

BACKGROUND Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare form of dilated cardiomyopathy characterized by heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction associated with pregnancy. While clinical characteristics of these patients have been previously described in literature, there is limited data regarding the natural history and predictors of outcomes of these patients in Asia, most specifi cally in Filip...

Background We tested the hypotheses that 1) ejection fraction (EF) assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a stronger predictor of all cause mortality than EF assessed by echocardiography; and 2) CMR with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) improves risk stratification over echocardiography EF in Cox regression models as determined by net reclassification improvement (NRI). Echocar...

the disease of thalassemia major requires mangement by repeated transfusions of packed cell and iron chelators such as deferoxamine. today, serum ferritin is used for estimation of adequacy of the management. as the most morbidities and mortalities of the disease are the consequences of cardiac complications. echocardiography is periodically periodically performed along with the management. in ...

conclusions the administration of curcumin in patients undergoing dialysis had no positive effects on enhancing lvef and lv function. further research is required to shed sufficient light on this issue. results the mean age was 44.2 ± 13.4 years for the curcumin group and 45.4 ± 6.2 years for the placebo group. the study population comprised 22 male and 13 female patients. there were no signifi...