OBJECTIVES This study was designed to assess the feasibility and the long-term results of a symptom-based strategy of aortic valve replacement in a Brazilian population with predominant rheumatic etiology. BACKGROUND Optimal criteria for valve replacement in aortic regurgitation (AR) are still not entirely clear. The appearance of symptoms is an indication for surgery, but may be associated w...

Abstract Background Depending on etiology, extent of disease progression, and comorbidities, patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) typically present considerable heterogeneity. Purpose This study therefore sought to improve diagnostic prognostic resolution in undergoing valve transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (MV TEER) for MR by developing a man-machine interaction-based phenotyping ap...

background: diabetes mellitus is capable of impairing the myocardial function. several studies have documented the influential impact of diabetes mellitus on the left ventricular function. the right ventricular function plays a significant role in the overall myocardial contractility; hence, this study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of diabetes mellitus type ii on the right ventricular f...

Limited data are available concerning left ventricular contractility and contractile reserve in the chronically denervated, transplanted human heart. This is primarily because of the inability of traditional tests of left ventricular performance to distinguish changes in contractility from alterations in ventricular loading conditions. In this study, load-independent end-systolic indexes of lef...

Symptoms of congestive heart failure frequently reflect abnormalities in both systolic and diastolic performance. While much work has been reported regarding the mechanisms by which positive inotropic and vasodilator therapy affect systolic performance, little is known about their effect on diastolic function. In 12 patients with diffuse congestive cardiomyopathy micromanometer left ventricular...

M-mode echocardiographic findings are described in 21 patients with endomyocardial fibrosis. Features associated with right ventricular endomyocardial fibrosis include: (i) exaggerated motion and thickening of the anterior right ventricular wall; (ii) increased right ventricular end-diastolic dimension; and (iii) paradoxical septal motion. Pericardial effusion (viz an echo-free space behind the...

background: heart disease is the main cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with beta thalassemia, rendering its early diagnosis vital. we studied and compared echocardiographic findings in patients with beta thalassemia major, patients with beta thalassemia intermedia, and a control group. methods: eighty asymptomatic patients with thalassemia major and 22 asymptomatic cases with thalas...

Results Preserved contractile reserve had 19 patients (34.5%). Patients with and without preserved left ventricular contractile reserve were no different in age, gender, disease duration, NYHA class, presence of atrial fibrillation and left bundle branch block. Patients with preserved contractile reserve had a smaller end-diastolic (62.95 ± 5.64 vs. 68.58 ± 7.53 mm, p = 0.006) and end-systolic ...

Left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volume, stroke volume, and ejection fraction were determined by biplane angiocardiography and echocardiography in 27 patients suspected of having heart disease. Angiographic volumes were calculated by the area-length method and echocardiographic volumes, from the left ventricular dimension of the echograms. The angiographic minor diameter and the ...