background: n-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (nt-probnp) is a sensitive biomarker for the detection of asymptomatic left ventricular (lv) dysfunction. since β-thalassemia major patients suffer from early diastolic dysfunction due to iron deposition of chronic blood transfusion, we tried to evaluate the correlation between the serum nt-probnp level and the severity of lv diastolic dysfun...

A subclinical elevation in urinary albumin excretion (UAE) microalbuminuria is frequently seen in essential hypertension. The level of blood pressure appears to be an important factor in the development of microalbuminuria. Moreover there is some evidence to indicate that microalbuminuria may be an early marker of increased cardiovascular risk. Aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence o...

1. Hoffmann R, von Bardeleben S, Kasprzak JD, et al. Analysis of regional left ventricular function by cineventriculography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and unenhanced and contrast-enhanced echocardiography: a multicenter comparison of methods. J Am Coll Cardiol 2006; 47:121–8. 2. Hoffmann R, von Bardeleben S, ten Cate F, et al. Assessment of systolic left ventricular function: a multi-...

an elevated pulmonary artery pressure (pap) from any cause is associated with increased mortality, especially in cases of primary pulmonary arterial hypertension (pah). one of the many reasons behind a bad prognosis is the inherent difficulty in assessing right ventricular (rv) function with reproducible methods. intensive research involving the left heart has made it relatively easy to assess ...

In order to identify left ventricular diastolic function in patients with betathalassemia major and normal systolic function by noninvasive M-mode and Doppler echocardiography, an analytic study was designed in a university hospital in Sari. We have studied 44 patients (23 men and 21 women), mean age 15.48±2.16 (range 12 to 20) and 43 age and sex matched control subjects. Peak flow velocit...

Right and left heart volumes, ejection fractions and ventricular outputs were determined from biplane cineangiocardiograms in infants with symptomatic coarctation of the aorta and correlated with clinical and hemodynamic alterations. Patients were divided into two age groups: group 1, aged 3.5 to 14 days and group 2, 5 weeks to 7 1/2 months. Infants in group 1 had severe depressions of left ven...

background: sickle-cell disease (scd) is an inherited hemoglobin childhood disorder, frequently complicated by pulmonary hypertension and cardiac involvement. cardiovascular events and complications are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with scd. tissue doppler imaging and the myocardial performance index (tei index), are simple indices for the assessment of the cardiac f...