OBJECTIVE To evaluate the utility of N terminal pro brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) as a diagnostic marker for diastolic dysfunction or failure, systolic dysfunction, and significant valve disorders in patients over 75 years. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Outpatient echocardiography service in a district general hospital. PARTICIPANTS 100 consecutive patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES...

The main objective was to determine the predictors of diastolic dysfunction in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Articles pertaining to diastolic dysfunction in RA were retrieved from Scopus, EBSCO, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases. Keywords such as: diastolic, cardiac, left ventricular function, heart failure, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiac failure were used. Studies, which e...

Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction induces the increase of LV diastolic pressure and subsequently of left atrial and pulmonary capillary pressures independent of systolic function, resulting in the onset of heart failure. In the early 1990s, several clinical studies demonstrated that diastolic dysfunction is an independent prognostic factor in patients with heart failure with reduced e...

The contribution of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction to the impairment in overall left ventricular performance in patients with systolic dysfunction is underappreciated. This article summarizes the available data on diastolic dysfunction in patients with congestive heart failure in which the predominant abnormality was thought to be left ventricular systolic dysfunction. The prevalence an...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Few studies have assessed left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony in cases of diastolic dysfunction that do not include overt symptoms of heart failure. We hypothesized that systolic or diastolic dyssynchrony involves unique features with respect to the degree of diastolic impairment in isolated diastolic dysfunction. METHODS We examined 105 subjects with no history of overt sympto...

A 55-year-old man with significant lesion of left anterior descending artery and left ventricular systolic dysfunction, became candidate for coronary artery bypass grafts surgery. Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was done for evaluation of severity of mitral regurgitation. During surgery, suddently systolic blood pressure dropped to 50 mmHg and lasted for 2 minutes and grad...