Pulmonary hypertension (PH) may be observed in many different conditions, including advanced heart or lung disease [1]. PH is defined as elevation of the mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) ≥25 mmHg, measured by right heart catheterization (RHC). Since procedure-related risks and costs are not negligible, RHC is not routinely performed in patients with advanced lung disease during initial a...

Abstract Background The coupling of the right ventricle (RV) to pulmonary circulation is an indicator RV performance non-invasively estimable by echocardiography. There are no data about its use in patients affected fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (f-ILD). Methods Fifty f-ILD patients, including 27 cases with idiopathic fibrosis (IPF), (M=37; mean age 67±7 yrs) were studied standard and spe...

PurposeOur prior findings demonstrated the additive value of echocardiographic parameters - specifically left ventricle end diastolic (LV ED) eccentricity index to REVEAL lite 2.0 in early prediction disease progression pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The latest 2022 ESC/ERS PH guidelines suggested use Tricuspid Annular Plane Systolic Excursion Pulmonary Arterial Pressure (TAPSE/sPAP) as...

OBJECTIVES Cardiovascular involvement is recognized as a poor prognostic factor in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of nailfold video-capillaroscopy (NVC), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) blood level and exercise echocardiography to predict the occurrence of cardiovascular events in SSc. METHODS We prospectively enrolled 65 patients with SSc (age ...

BACKGROUND Hemodynamics assessment is important for detecting and treating post-implant residual heart failure, but its accuracy is unverified in patients with continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVADs). OBJECTIVES We determined whether Doppler and 2-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography reliably assess hemodynamics in patients supported with CF-LVADs. METHODS Simultane...

Members of the family of surface adhesins of oral streptococci, including P1 of Streptococcus mutans, contain two highly conserved repeat domains, one rich in alanine (A region) and the other rich in proline (P region). To assess the contribution of the P region to the biological properties of P1, an internal deletion in spaP was engineered. In addition, the P region was subcloned and expressed...

BackgroundExercise stress echocardiography (SE) is increasingly recognized as a useful tool for assessment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). However, while the prognostic significance resting systolic artery pressure (SPAP) well established and global longitudinal right ventricular free wall strain (RV FWS) has been identified an independent marker PH, l...

Abstract Background Although echocardiographic surrogates of right ventricular -arterial coupling (RVAC) have been reported to be associated with outcome in patients moderate or severe secondary tricuspid regurgitation (STR), pulmonary artery systolic pressure (SPAP) is difficult estimated using echocardiography STR. Purpose Accordingly, we evaluated the predictive power indexes RVAC obtained R...

We investigated the staining characteristics of serrated polyps with abnormal proliferation (SPAP) using MIB-1 and MCM-2 to determine if they could provide assistance in delineating SPAPs from traditional hyperplastic polyps (HPs). Using published morphologic criteria we reviewed H&E slides of 107 polyps from 80 patients. Thirty-nine (36.4%) polyps met the criteria for SPAP Within a given regio...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) the chronic increase filling pressures progressively involves left atrium (LA), pulmonary circulation (PC) and right ventricle (RV), leading to worse outcome. Purpose we investigated prognostic impact either isolate LA impairment, RV dysfunction combined hypertensi...