Endocarditis can affect any endocardial surface; in the vast majority of cases, the cardiac valves are involved. It is exceedingly rare to develop infective endocarditis on the endocardium of the left ventricular outflow tract due to the high velocity of blood that traverses this area. Herein, we present a rare case of left ventricular outflow tract endocarditis that likely occurred secondary t...

Previous investigations have shown that the size of a regurgitant jet as assessed by color Doppler flow mapping is independently affected by the flow rate and velocity (or driving pressure) of the jet. Fluid dynamics theory predicts that jet momentum (given by the orifice flow rate multiplied by velocity) should best predict the appearance of the jet in the receiving chamber and also that this ...

AIMS Colour Doppler is the most widely used technique for assessing valve disease, but eccentric regurgitant jets cannot be visualized and measured by conventional 2D techniques. We have developed a new procedure for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of colour Doppler signals. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty patients with mitral regurgitation underwent transoesophageal echocardiography and 3D a...

AIMS Patients with sickle cell disease have significant morbidity and mortality. Pulmonary hypertension is suggested to be an important contributor but its nature and severity in these patients and how best to non-invasively assess it are controversial. We hypothesised that a high-output state rather than primary pulmonary vascular pathology may be the major abnormality in sickle cell disease. ...

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may result in cardiomyopathy which is a major cause of death in thalassemia patients. Vitamin D is associated with benefits in cardiovascular disorders. Our purpose was to study effects of vitamin D on pulmonary artery pressure in thalassemia major and intermedia patients. Materials and Methods: This randomized trial was performed on 26 patient...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of continuous wave Doppler ultrasound recordings to reflect the magnitude and hemodynamic effects of aortic regurgitation. Forty-five patients with angiographically proved aortic regurgitation had Doppler studies performed within 24 hours of cardiac catheterization. High quality spectral recordings of the regurgitant jet were obtained in 31 ...

BACKGROUND In clinical color Doppler examinations, mitral regurgitant jets are often observed to impinge on the left atrial wall immediately beyond the mitral valve. In accordance with fluid dynamics theory, we hypothesized that a jet impinging on a wall would lose momentum more rapidly, undergo spatial distortion, and thus have a different observed jet area from that of a free jet with an iden...

BACKGROUND The ability of transesophageal color Doppler echocardiography to provide high-resolution images of both cardiac structure and blood flow in real time is advantageous for many clinical purposes. This study was performed to determine the utility of the regurgitant jet width at its origin measured by transesophageal Doppler color flow imaging in the assessment of severity of mitral regu...