OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence on circulating levels of endothelin-1 and big endothelin-1 in relation to echocardiographic findings and functional assessment, by passive containment surgery in heart failure patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. METHODS Thirteen patients with dilated cardiomyopathy subjected to cardiac surgery received the Acorn Cardiac Support Device. Patients with ische...

Systemic embolisation is common in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Microembolisation as a presenting sign of dilated cardiomyopathy, however, has not been reported before. A 37 year old woman in whom dilated cardiomyopathy presented as arterial microembolisation to the toes is described.

Two young White brothers had dilated (congestive) cardiomyopathy. The elder came to autopsy after a chronic course of congestive cardiac failure, the younger underwent repeated cardiac catheterization and transvenous right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy specimens demonstrated histopathological features in keeping with a diagnosis of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. These brothers may have ...

A histopathological index of contractility failure, which was reported to be accurate for the diagnosis of idiopathic dilated or congestive cardiomyopathy in Japan, was used to assess endomyocardial biopsy specimens from 41 Dutch patients with suspected dilated cardiomyopathy. The calculated index had a sensitivity of 62.5% and a specificity of 68% for idiopathic dilated or congestive cardiomyo...

Background Alcohol consumed in large quantities for many years has long been recognized to induce an alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Clinically identical to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, alcoholic cardiomyopathy is a major form of secondary dilated cardiomyopathy in the Western world. (See Medscape Reference articles Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy and Dilated Cardiomyopathy.) With this change in cardi...

background differentiating ischemic from nonischemic cardiomyopathy is important both prognostically and therapeutically, although it may be difficult clinically. objectives we aimed to determine the diagnostic power of cardiogoniometry (cgm) in the differentiation of the ischemic from the nonischemic etiology of left bundle branch block (lbbb). patients and methods we studied 37 patients with ...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of death in the world. Current treatments have not been able to reverse this scenario, creating the need for the development of new therapies. Cell therapies have emerged as an alternative for cardiac diseases of distinct causes in experimental animal studies and more recently in clinical trials. METHOD/DESIGN We have designed clinical tr...

OBJECTIVE To compare pulmonary function and respiratory muscle strength in patients with ischaemic and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, well matched for indices of heart failure. METHODS The study involved 30 patients with ischaemic cardiomyopathy and 30 with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. The groups were well matched for age, weight, and clinical severity of cardiac dysfunction as asse...

Methods Patients (n = 84, age: 57.7 ± 14.7 yrs, [mean ± SD], LVEF: 25.7 ± 11.1%) with newly diagnosed NIDCM underwent late gadolinium enhancement CMR (inversion-recovery technique 10 min after the administration of gadolinium-DTPA (0.1 mmol/kg). Peak systolic circumferential (Εcc) and radial (Εrr) strain were assessed using FT-CMR of the mid-cavity LV short-axis cine and peak systolic longitudi...