AIMS Most of the studies of athlete's heart have been performed on Caucasian and yet, evidence suggests that there are racial differences in the response of the heart to certain pathological conditions such as hypertension. This study aimed to evaluate the morphologic cardiac changes in a group of highly trained Cameroonian handball players. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied cardiac morphology a...

BACKGROUND The meta-analysis was aimed to evaluate the effects of AMPD1 gene C34T polymorphism on cardiac function indexes, blood pressure and prognosis in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). METHODS Eligible studies were retrieved through a comprehensive search of electronic databases and manual search. Then the high-quality studies met the rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria,...

BACKGROUND Acute kidney injury (AKI) following heart surgery is associated with long-term risk of heart failure. It is not known if AKI following valvular heart surgery is associated with early changes in cardiac function or structure. METHODS A cohort study was conducted on 201 patients with AKI and 201 patients without AKI after valvular heart surgery, who were matched for age, sex, left ve...

BACKGROUND HeartMate II (HM II) and HeartWare (HW) Left Ventricular Assist Devices have been successfully used in end-stage heart failure patients as a bridge to transplantation, recovery, or decision. We set out to compare their effect in off-loading the left ventricle and its geometry. METHODS The left ventricular end diastolic (LVEDD) and end systolic (LVESD) diameters were compared betwee...

Background: Study the correlation between the left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV), ejection fraction (EF) and the development of arrhythmia. Patients and methods: Two hundreds patients with documented acute coronary syndrome and myocardial infection with dysrhythmia documented by ECG and holter monitoring assessed at the cardiac department at Baghdad teaching hospital over the period ...

BACKGROUND Evaluation of myocardial function is clinically challenging in dogs with degenerative mitral valve disease (DMVD). Although myocardial dysfunction is caused by pathologic degeneration, histopathologic progression is poorly understood. OBJECTIVES To characterize myocardial and pulmonary pathologic changes according to severity in dogs with naturally occurring DMVD, and to investigat...

AIMS Some patients show such an important clinical improvement and reverse remodelling after cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) that anatomy and function approach normal. These patients have been called 'super-responders'. The aim of our study was to identify predictors of becoming a super-responder after CRT. METHODS AND RESULTS Eighty-seven consecutive patients who underwent CRT were p...

AIMS Inhibition of the Na+/H+-exchanger (NHE) preserves myocardial morphology and function in rat and mouse models of hypertrophy and failure. The mechanism(s) involved in such cardioprotective effects remain(s) unclear, but might involve blockade of increased protein kinase activity as observed in untreated hearts. METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated the functional, morphological and biochem...

AIM To evaluate the relationship between creatinine clearance rate (CCR) and the level of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in heart failure (HF) patients and their correlations with HF severity. METHODS AND RESULTS Two hundred and one Chinese patients were grouped according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification as NYHA 1-2 and 3-4 groups and 135 cases ou...

The use of immunosuppressive therapy for inflammatory cardiomyopathy is controversial. The aim of this review is to summarize the current empirical evidence for immunosuppressive treatment in inflammatory cardiomyopathy. We conducted a meta-analysis of all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared immunosuppressive therapy with either placebo or conventional treatment in patients with i...