OBJECTIVES Although stentless aortic bioprostheses are believed to offer improved outcomes, benefits remain unsubstantiated. The aim of our study was to compare stentless with stented bioprostheses, with regard to postoperative changes in left ventricular mass and hemodynamic performance, in the elderly patient. METHODS Forty patients with aortic stenoses, over the age of 75 years, were rando...

OBJECTIVE To assess independent determinants of beat to beat variation in left ventricular performance during atrial fibrillation. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING University hospital. PATIENTS Seven patients with chronic non-valvar atrial fibrillation. INTERVENTIONS Invasive and non-invasive haemodynamic variables were assessed using a non-imaging computerised nuclear probe, a balloon...

A 47 year-old female died after mitral valve replacement. Post-cardiopulmonary bypass right ventricle was not able to pump despite good left ventricular contractility. At microscopic examination, diffuse right ventricular fatty infiltration was found. We found no previous report of this pathology in patients with mitral stenosis

Abstract Background Myocardial iron overload is the leading cause of death in patients with beta-thalassemia major. Combined therapy with deferiprone(DFP) and desferrioxamine (DFO)were suggested to be more effective than deferasirox(DFX) for removing heart iron. Deferasirox has recently been made available, but its long-term efficacy on cardiac function has not yet been established. Our study...

spontaneous coronary artery dissection (scad) is a rare condition that can result in unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction, and sudden death. this condition may occur particularly in women during late pregnancy and in the postpartum period. we present the case of a 33-year-old african american woman, who had spontaneous left anterior descending coronary artery (lad) dissection two weeks ...

introduction: we aimed to assess whether the vasodilator effect of oral dipyridamole on the left ventricular systolic function in patients with suspected cad is different from that of intravenous (iv) dipyridamole using tc-99m mibi myocardial perfusion gated spect. methods: eighty-nine patients (17 m / 72 w; 61 ± 10 years) were enrolled in this study. the patients underwent a dipyridamole stres...

conclusions the coronary sinus flow per minute is the most accurate parameter among the three echocardiographic parameters mentioned above for the assessment of significant stenosis of the coronary artery. results flow (ml/minute), flow/lvm (ml/minuteg) and lv (d-s) mass a-l all correlated significantly with the percentage of stenosis (r = -0.64, p < 0.001; r = -0.47, p < 0.001; r = -0.56, p < ...

While the etiologies of congestive heart failure (CHF) are diverse, a common event in the progression of this disease process is left ventricular dilation and subsequent pump dysfunction. Past clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that growth hormone (GH) can directly influence left ventricular myocardial structure and function. For example, GH supplementation in patients with car...