T he anatomic contiguity of the right and left ventricles suggests that alterations in the mechanical properties, configuration, or contractile performance of one chamber might influence the function of the other. By virtue of the anatomic arrangements of muscular fibers, right ventricular ejection is dependent on both longitudinal and cir-cumferential shortening of its free wall against a conv...

The acute haemodynamic effects of oral pirbuterol (a beta-agonist) were contrasted with those of sodium nitroprusside, a vasodilator, in six patients with hypoxic chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Sodium nitroprusside (1-5 mg/kg intravenously) reduced mean pulmonary arterial pressure and total pulmonary vascular resistance significantly (p less than 0.01) without change in cardiac output or rig...

Eighteen patients with chronic aortic insufficiency were evaluated hemodynamically and angiographically 8 months after aortic valve replacement. Both the pulmonary artery diastolic pressure and the left ventricular end-diastolic volume decreased significantly (p < 0.001), but the mean ejection fraction and the cardiac output remained identically lowered, though some individual cases showed impr...

Adaptive cardiac binding, a new surgical procedure for advanced heart failure, allows a gradual increase in compression on the dilated heart, with separate loads on the left and right ventricles. A canine model of biventricular heart failure (anastomosis between the carotid artery and jugular vein and doxorubicin administration) was created. Twenty-four dogs were divided into 4 groups: control,...

BACKGROUND Biventricular (BiV) is extensively used in the treatment of congestive heart failure but so far no recommendations for optimized programming of atrioventricular-delay (AVD) settings have been proposed. Can AVD optimization be performed using a simple formula based on non-invasive doppler-echocardiography? METHODS 25 patients (ejection fraction 30+/-8%) received BiV ICDs. Doppler-ec...

BACKGROUND To evaluate, with different pacing modes, acute changes in left ventricular systolic function, obtained by continuous cardiac output thermodilution in various subsets of patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Increments of mean arterial pressure and cardiac output were considered the end point. METHODS Fifty cases electively submitted to cardiac surgery were analyzed. ...

Radionuclide measurements of regional left ventricular ejection fraction were evaluated as a quantitative index of regional left ventricular function. Left ventricular regional ejection fractions were derived from background-corrected, time-activity curves in 43 patients assessed by both gated equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography and left ventricular contrast angiography. From a single, m...

Single plane cineangiography, either in the anteroposterior or in the right anterior oblique projection, can be used to determine left ventricular volumes. Volumes so obtained showed good agreement with those reported by others using biplane techniques. Ejection fraction and ejection rate derived from such volumes were normal in patients with mitral stenosis and with chronic compensated pressur...

BACKGROUND This investigation was designed to test the hypothesis that vascular adaptation occurs in patients with chronic aortic regurgitation to maintain left ventricular (LV) performance. METHODS AND RESULTS Forty-five patients with chronic aortic regurgitation (mean age 50+/-14 years) were studied using a micromanometer LV catheter to obtain LV pressures and radionuclide ventriculography ...

Aims To determine whether left ventricular volumes and ejection fractions calculated from single plane two-dimensional echocardiograms using the algorithm (0·85AL) correlate with those calculated using the biplane Simpson’s method, and whether small changes in volumes and ejection fraction occurring post-infarction could be detected from single-plane as well as from biplane two-dimensional echo...