Background: Because of the importance of thyroid function and its effect on different organs, such as the heart, this study was aimed to evaluate the effect of levothyroxine on cardiac function in children with subclinical hypothyroidism. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on children aged 4-12 years old with diagnosis of subclinical hypothyroidism in Amirkola Children's Hosp...

BACKGROUND Sudden death has been considered the main cause of death in patients with Chagas heart disease. Nevertheless, this information comes from a period before the introduction of drugs that changed the natural history of heart failure. We sought to study the mode of death of patients with heart failure caused by Chagas heart disease, comparing with non-Chagas cardiomyopathy. METHODS AND...

Left ventricular (LV) volume overload (VO) causes eccentric remodeling with inflammatory cell infiltration and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, for which there is currently no proven therapy. To uncover new pathways that connect inflammation and ECM homeostasis with cellular dysfunction, we determined the cardiac transciptome in subacute, compensated, and decompensated stages based on in...

The action mechanism of natakalim, a novel ATP-sensitive potassium channel opener, was studied in ameliorating the congestive heart failure (CHF) after myocardial infarction. A total of 25 healthy Wistar male rats (age, 10 weeks; average weight, 300 g) were selected, and the CHF models after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were prepared by ligation of left anterior descending branch. They wer...

Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) therapy use is increasing rapidly in advanced heart failure (HF). Little data exists on the application of this therapy in patients with advanced HF due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Altered ventricular geometry, thickened septum and reduced LV end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) in HCM may lead to increased suction events, arrhythmias and inflow cannula...

OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that angiotensin II type-1 (AT(1)) receptor blocker (AT(1)RB) would prevent adverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling and LV dysfunction when started at the outset of mitral regurgitation (MR). BACKGROUND Little is known regarding the efficacy of AT(1)RB treatment of MR. METHODS Mitral regurgitation was induced by chordal disruption in adult mongrel dogs. Six norma...

Background: Myocardial fibrosis (MF) is a risk factor for poor prognosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) of the myocardium on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) represents MF. We examined whether the LGE amount increases the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with stage C or D heart failure (HF). Methods: Eighty-four consecutive patients with...

OBJECTIVE Aortic valve replacement for aortic valve stenosis (AS) and regurgitation (AR) in patients with severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction contains an increased risk. Few data are available on the outcome of such patients. METHODS Fifty-five consecutive patients with severe LV dysfunction (ejection fraction, EF; <30%) and aortic valve replacement for AS (n=35) or AR (n=20) were invest...

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2D (LGMD2D) is an inherited myogenic disorder belonging to the group of muscular dystrophies. Sgca-null mouse is a knock-out model of LGMD2D. Little is known about cardiac phenotype characterization in this model at different ages. We conducted a prospective study to characterize cardiac sgca-null mice phenotype using high resolution Doppler echocardiography at di...