BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate whether rats dosed with serotonin develop changes similar to those seen in human carcinoid heart disease. METHODS AND RESULTS Ten Sprague-Dawley rats were given serotonin injections subcutaneously once daily for 3 months; controls were given saline. A long-lasting hyperserotoninemia with a >10-fold increase in both platelet-poor plasma a...

Diastolic myocardial stiffness and viscosity were determined in 40 patients with myocardial hypertrophy by combined echo-pressure measurements. These diastolic measurements were compared with left ventricular muscle fiber diameter and interstitial fibrosis as obtained from left ventricular endomyocardial biopsies at catheterization. The patients were divided into four groups: group 1 eight cont...

Diastolic myocardial stiffness and viscosity were determined in 40 patients with myocardial hypertrophy by combined echo-pressure measurements. These diastolic measurements were compared with left ventricular muscle fiber diameter and interstitial fibrosis as obtained from left ventricular endomyocardial biopsies at catheterization. The patients were divided into four groups: group 1 eight cont...

The Ross procedure is an excellent choice for younger patients in need of aortic valve replacement. While patients have benefited from superior survival rates associated with this procedure, complications related to aortic root dilatation and degeneration of the autograft may be encountered later in life. These challenges may be exacerbated in those with underlying connective tissue abnormaliti...

OBJECTIVES Various forms of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) aortopathy exist, and the optimal treatment for the different subgroups is insufficiently defined. We aimed to analyse the risk of adverse aortic events after aortic valve replacement (AVR) for BAV insufficiency and concomitant mild-to-moderate dilatation of the aortic root (i.e. BAV root phenotype). METHODS A total of 56 consecutive pat...

Most cardiodynamic indices including positive and negative left ventricular (LV) dp/dt, and the ratio of either to left ventricular end diastolic presmre (LVEDP) as well as to each other, deviate in nearly identical fashion with both myocardial impairment and preejection ventricular unloading of the type seen in mitral insufficiency. Because peak contractile element velocity is an early preejec...

• When aortic and mitral valvular insufficiency are present in the same patient, indicator injected into the aortic root regurgitates into the left ventricle and thence into the left atrium. The purpose of this paper is to describe the indicator distribution in such patients and to compare the relationships found with those predicted from a theoretical model of bivalvular insufficiency. Indicat...