Background: Cardiac dysfunction due to chronic anemia and hemosiderosis are the major causes of death among patients with thalassemia intermedia. This study was performed to compare the cardiac function in thalassemia intermedia patients with normal subjects by means of echocardiography. Materials and Methods: This was a case-control study performed on 22 patients affected by thalassemia int...

BACKGROUND: Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal cellscan transdifferentiate into Cardiomyocyte cells and improveheart function after transplantation. Since biomaterials canimprove the cell retention in the site, cell survival and differentiation,heart tissue engineering is now being explored as anapplied solution to support cell-based therapies and increasetheir efficacy for myocardial diseases. Ch...

BACKGROUND The presence of myocardial fibrosis is associated with worse clinical outcomes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) sequences can detect regional, but not diffuse myocardial fibrosis. Post-contrast T(1) mapping is an emerging CMR technique that may enable the non-invasive evaluation of diffuse myocardial ...

Hammer S, van der Meer RW, Lamb HJ, de Boer HH, Bax JJ, de Roos A, Romijn JA, Smit JW. Short-term flexibility of myocardial triglycerides and diastolic function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 295: E714–E718, 2008. First published July 15, 2008; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.90413.2008.— Short-term caloric restriction increases plasma levels of nonesterified fatty...