OBJECTIVE Increased plasma concentrations of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) have been reported in patients with manifest heart failure. At rest, however, cGMP concentrations in patients with asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction or heart failure in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class I do not differ significantly from those of healthy subjects. The purpose of this stud...

BACKGROUND Patients with aortic stenosis have a period of compensated left ventricular hypertrophy but may eventually develop congestive heart failure. Previous experimental studies showed either normal myocardial contractility in mild short-term pressure overload or myocardial dysfunction with severe pressure overload. Transition from compensated left ventricular hypertrophy to myocardial dysf...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the occurrence of ventricular systolic dysfunction in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). BACKGROUND Patients with HIV-related PAH may develop ventricular systolic dysfunction both as a consequence of PAH progression or of the myocardial involvement from the HIV infection itself. METHODS Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging ...

background: patients suffering from major beta thalassemia need frequent blood transfusions and, if not treated well, would be at risk of heart dysfunction. this study was performed to determine the diagnostic value of electrocardiography versus echocardiography in measuring the left ventricular mass index in these patients. methods: between july 2010 and june 2011, 82 asymptomatic patients ove...

Synthetic marijuana is an uptrending designer drug currently widely spread in the US. We report a case of acute deterioration of nonischemic left ventricular dysfunction after exposure to synthetic marijuana. This case illustrates the importance of history taking in cardiac patients and identifies a negative cardiovascular effect of synthetic marijuana known as K2, not yet well detected by urin...

BACKGROUND Systemic hypertension is a common cause of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. However, its prevalence in Nigerians with untreated systemic hypertension is unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in newly diagnosed Nigerians with systemic hypertension using Doppler transmitral inflow and pulmonary venous flow velocities. METHOD...

abstract objective cardiac dysfunction is a major cause of death in patients with beta thalassemia. in these patients, repeated blood transfusion, ineffective erythropoiesis and increased gastrointestinal iron absorption lead to iron overload in the body and this induced heart failure. left ventricular ejection fraction was measured in major beta thalassemia (β-th) patients to detect the relati...

OBJECTIVE To determine the value of the radiological study of the thorax for diagnosing left ventricular dilation and left ventricular systolic dysfunction in patients with Chagas' disease. METHODS A cross-sectional study of 166 consecutive patients with Chagas' disease and no other associated diseases. The patients underwent cardiac assessment with chest radiography and Doppler echocardiogra...