Radionuclide ventriculography of the right heart was performed in 56 patients within two weeks of cardiac catheterization using a gated first-pass technique. Thirteen patient served as normal controls, and 43 patients had severe aortic or mitral valve disease or both, 35 of whom subsequently underwent valve surgery. Right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and the presence of central venous r...

an elevated pulmonary artery pressure (pap) from any cause is associated with increased mortality, especially in cases of primary pulmonary arterial hypertension (pah). one of the many reasons behind a bad prognosis is the inherent difficulty in assessing right ventricular (rv) function with reproducible methods. intensive research involving the left heart has made it relatively easy to assess ...

conclusions silent ventricular systolic dysfunction was more common in the patients with sle than in the control group. newer echocardiographic techniques such as two-dimensional ste provide an earlier chance for the detection of subclinical lv systolic dysfunction. our findings were independent of the traditional risk factors. results the mean duration of sle was 5.5 ± 3.4 years in our patient...

BACKGROUND Published reference values for echocardiographic measurements of right-heart dimensions and function do not stratify for gender and body size. The aim of this study was therefore to assess the impact of gender and biometric characteristics on right-heart dimensions and function. METHODS From the echocardiography database at a tertiary care center, 1,625 subjects (mean age, 44 ± 14 ...

BACKGROUND Abnormalities in right ventricular function are known to occur in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. OBJECTIVE Test the hypothesis that chronic elevation in pulmonary artery systolic pressure delays mechanical activation of the right ventricle, termed dyssynchrony, and is associated with both symptoms and right ventricular dysfunction. METHODS Fifty-two patients (mean...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an important cause of heart failure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The pro brain natriuretic peptide N-terminal (NT-proBNP) has been suggested as a noninvasive marker to evaluate ventricular function. However, there is no evidence to support the use of NT-proBNP in monitoring the benefits of vasodilators in COPD induced PH. Thus, we used NT-proBN...

BACKGROUND The right ventricle (RV) receives part of its systolic pumping force from the left ventricle through systolic ventricular interaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of dilated cardiomyopathy on left ventricular to right ventricular (LV-to-RV) systolic interaction. METHODS AND RESULTS Studies were performed in six normal pigs and in six pigs in which dilated...

Thallium-201 myocardial scintigraphy was performed in patients with congenital heart defects to determine whether, by quantification of right ventricular isotope uptake, one could assess the degree of right ventricular hypertrophy and so predict the level of right ventricular pressure. A total of 24 patients ranging in age from 7 months to 30 years was studied; 18 were studied before corrective...

background: there is some evidence indicating improvement in myocardial performance after atrial septal defect closure, either device closure or surgical, but ventricular dyssynchrony has not been evaluated before and after surgical closure. the aim of this study was to evaluate ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony in patients with atrial septal defect before and after surgical closure. methods:...