BACKGROUND In the initial postoperative period after a Fontan-type operation for a univentricular circulation, cardiac output information is important, but cannot be provided by conventional methods due to the surgical reconstruction of the heart. In this regard we investigated the feasibility of epi-aortic Doppler measurements in order to calculate cardiac output. METHODS : Epi-aortic cardia...

multiple aorto-cardiac cavity communications is very rare but important complication of prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis. the case below illustrates multiple aorto-cardiac cavity fistula formation following prostethic aortic valve endocarditis presented with slowly progressive symptoms of heart failure. a brief review of surgical reconstruction and the existing literature are presented, inc...

Pericardial effusions compress the heart, and lead to decrease in cardiac output with haemodynamic collapse. The treatment of PE remains experimental (i.e. not standardized, based on the clinician’s experience) due to lack of large randomized studies. Available treatments differ from observation with/ without anti-inflammatory chemotherapy to pericardiocentesis with/without percutaneus catheter...

Respiratory-induced changes in arterial blood pressure predict fluid responsiveness. However, the accuracy of these variables is affected by the preset tidal volume and by the early inspiratory increase in arterial blood pressure. We have therefore calculated the slope produced by the minimal systolic blood pressures (plotted against the respective airway pressures) during a ventilatory maneuve...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of atropine on the dose requirement of propofol for induction of anesthesia and propofol concentrations during continuous infusion. METHODS Study 1: Forty patients were randomly allocated to the control or atropine groups. Induction of anesthesia commenced 3 min following the administration of 0.9% saline or atropine (0.01 mg kg(-...

Haemodynamic alterations occur consistently with laparoscopic surgery in humans. These haemodynamic changes have never been reproduced in an animal model without additional potentiating factors. As these alterations may be deleterious in some patients and as the cause is only partly understood, we have used an animal model to study these changes. Pneumoperitoneum with intraperitoneal pressures ...

The aim of this study was to validate a new technique for the measurement of cardiac output (CO) based on ultrasound and dilution (COUD) in anesthetized rats. A transit time ultrasound (TTU) probe was placed around the rat carotid artery, and ultrasound velocity dilution curves were generated on intravenous injections of saline. CO by COUD were calculated from the dilution curves for normal and...

BACKGROUND Phase contrast (PC) measurements play an important role in several cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) protocols but considerable variation is observed in such measurements. Part of this variation stems from the propagation of thermal noise from the measurement data through the image reconstruction to the region of interest analysis used in flow measurement, which limits the prec...