INTRODUCTION Levosimendan is a new inotropic vasodilator for the treatment of decompensated heart failure. Compared to other inotropic agents, it has been shown to improve myocardial contractility without increasing oxygen requirements. However, experience with levosimendan in patients with low cardiac output after cardiopulmonary bypass is limited. In this case series we present the short-term...

introduction pulmonary hypertension is common among patients with hyperthyroidism, and graves’ disease constitutes the most common cause of thyrotoxicosis. case presentation we report the case of a female patient admitted to the cardiology department with shortness of breath and pretibial myxedema. the diagnostic work-up revealed combined pre- and post-capillary pulmonary hypertension due to gr...

To study the mechanisms of myocardial ischemia during isometric exercise, handgrip was sustained, for 4.5 min at 25% of maximum by 11 patients with at least one significant coronary stenosis each, during cardiac catheterization. After recovery, the handgrip that was repeated with simultaneous infusion of nitroglycerin (50 micrograms over 4 min) directly into the diseased vessel. The cardiovascu...

In 1957, Forster, Roughton, and their associates reported a method of estimating pulmonary capillary blood volume (Vc) and diffusing capacity of the alveolar-capillary membrane (DM) by measuring the diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DL) at varying levels of alveolar oxygen tension (1, 2).1 Since then there hlave been a number of reports on the behavior of membrane diffusion an...

A 19-year-old girl with a history of pulmonary arterial hypertension secondary to patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) presented in respiratory failure after blood transfusion for severe menorrhagia. The patient had been raised previously in a rural mountain community that did not engage in medical care. She had been experiencing cyanosis and syncope for 2 years before emancipating herself from her f...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a fatal disease caused by small pulmonary artery obstruction by vascular proliferation and remodeling. PH is characterized by elevated pulmonary arterial pressure and increased pulmonary vascular resistance, frequently leading to right heart failure and death. PH is defined as a mean pulmonary arterial pressure ≥25 mm Hg at rest with right heart catheterization. T...

In two cases with a well-defined pulmonary capillary venous pressure pulse, the lobular pulmonary artery was occluded with a balloon while the pulmonary capillary venous pressure was registered. There was no change in the tracing obtained. In two other cases positive pressure respiration almost completely damped out the pulmonary capillary venous pressure variations, but the mean pressure remai...

The transpulmonary pressure gradient (TPG), defined by the difference between mean pulmonary arterial pressure (P(pa)) and left atrial pressure (P(la); commonly estimated by pulmonary capillary wedge pressure: P(pcw)) has been recommended for the detection of intrinsic pulmonary vascular disease in left-heart conditions associated with increased pulmonary venous pressure. In these patients, a T...