BACKGROUND Noninvasive echocardiographic tissue Doppler assessment (E/e') in response to exercise or pharmacological intervention has been proposed as a useful parameter to assess left ventricular (LV) filling pressure (LVFP) and LV diastolic dysfunction. However, the evidence for it is not well summarized. METHODS AND RESULTS Clinical studies that evaluated invasive LVFP changes in response ...

The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) test rate is increasingly used as a quality of care indicator for patients with heart failure. Our study produced benchmark LVEF test rates in a Medicare fee-for-service population for consideration by a clinical panel assembled by the Health Care Financing Administration. Our sample consisted of 46,583 beneficiaries admitted to the hospital for hea...

BACKGROUND Although gender-specific criteria are common for defining cardiac traits such as left ventricular hypertrophy, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) thresholds widely used in clinical practice have traditionally been the same for women and men, perhaps because it remains uncertain whether there is a systematic difference in LVEF between genders. METHODS AND RESULTS Using cardia...

Background—Strategies for prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) focus on severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, though most SCD post-myocardial infarction occurs in patients with mild/moderate LV dysfunction. We tested the hypothesis that infarct heterogeneity by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is associated with mortality beyond left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with...

BACKGROUND This prospective placebo-controlled trial was designed to determine whether intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) improves left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in adults with recent onset of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy or myocarditis. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-two patients (37 men, 25 women; mean age +/-SD 43.0+/-12.3 years) with recent onset (</=6 months of symptoms) of di...

Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction % (LVEF%) is an hemodynamic index indicative for left ventricular function. Its numeric value can be obtained by different methods, such as twoor three-dimensional echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, and Nuclear Medicine-methods. It depends not only on myocardial contractility but also on preload and afterload, as well as heart rate and left ventricular...

A substantial number of patients with heart failure (HF) have preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), variably defined as an LVEF O40%, O45%, or O50%. When these patients have invasive or non-invasive evidence of abnormal diastolic function (either abnormal relaxation, filling or stiffness) they are said to have ‘‘diastolic HF’’. Although the term ‘‘HF with normal LVEF’’ is often u...

BACKGROUND Studies on clinical features, treatment and prognosis of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) are few and their results frequently conflicting. AIMS To investigate the characteristics and long term prognosis of patients with CHF and preserved (≥ 45%) LVEF. METHODS AND RESULTS We conducted a prospective multicentre st...

INTRODUCTION There are inconsistent data regarding the factors affecting left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) in patients after tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to assess the determinants of LVEF and RVEF in a large cohort of patients with repaired TOF. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study comprised 122 patie...

BACKGROUND Dobutamine stress hemodynamics (DSH) has the potential to stratify operative risk in low-gradient aortic stenosis (AS), but little is known about the relation between left ventricle contractile reserve and postoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). We sought to assess the value of DSH to predict postoperative improvement in LVEF. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-six consecut...