BACKGROUND Strategies for prevention of sudden cardiac death focus on severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, although most sudden cardiac death postmyocardial infarction occurs in patients with mild/moderate LV dysfunction. We tested the hypothesis that infarct heterogeneity by cardiac magnetic resonance is associated with mortality beyond LV ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with coronar...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to assess the accuracy of N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) as a diagnostic tool to recognize acute respiratory failure of cardiac origin in an unselected cohort of critically ill patients. METHODS We conducted a prospective observational study of medical ICU patients. NT-proBNP was measured at ICU admission, and diagnosis of card...

OBJECTIVE Cardiac diseases are established risk factors for ischemic stroke incidence and severity. Conversely, there is increasing evidence that brain ischemia can cause cardiac dysfunction. The mechanisms underlying this neurogenic heart disease are incompletely understood. Although it is established that ischemic stroke is associated with cardiac arrhythmias, myocardial damage, elevated card...

AIMS The incidence and mortality of myocardial infarction (MI) in diabetic patients are higher than in non-diabetic patients; however, the mechanisms by which diabetes results in cardiac dysfunction are poorly understood. The present study tested the hypothesis that an impaired sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway contributes to cardiac dysfunction in type 1 diabetic mice with MI. METHODS AND RESULTS...

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between subtle cardiovascular abnormalities and abnormal sodium handling in cirrhosis. A total of 35 biopsy-proven patients with cirrhosis with or without ascites and 14 age-matched controls underwent two-dimensional echocardiography and radionuclide angiography for assessment of cardiac volumes, structural changes and systolic and diastolic ...

BACKGROUND The pathophysiology of heart failure with normal ejection fraction (HFNEF) is still under discussion. Here we report the influence of cardiac inflammation on extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling in patients with HFNEF. METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated left ventricular systolic and diastolic function in 20 patients with HFNEF and 8 control patients by conductance catheter method...

dysfunction through inducing more apoptosis and fibrosis. Summary Stress serves as a risk factor in the etiology of hypertension. The present study was designed to decipher the effect and mechanism of chronic stress on the progression of pressure overload-induced cardiac dysfunction. We used abdominal aortic constriction (AAC) to induce pressure overload with or without chronic restraint stress...

Acute injury-induced cardiac contractile dysfunction occurs even in young and otherwise healthy individuals after major injuries, and significantly contributes to morbidity and mortality in patients with pre-existent cardiac diseases as well as in patients who develop multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Recent studies indicate that post-injury acute cardiac failure is the result of an exaggera...

AIM Altered vitamin D signaling is associated with cardiac dysfunction, but the pathogenic mechanism is not clearly understood. We examine the mechanism and the role of vitamin D signaling in the development of cardiac dysfunction. METHODS AND RESULTS We analyzed 1α-hydroxylase (1α-OHase) knockout (1α-OHase-/-) mice, which lack 1α-OH enzymes that convert the inactive form to hormonally active...

introduction: chest x–ray is one of the most common method of imaging. cardio thoracic ratio ( ctr ) is one of the parameters of chest x–ray that is used for determining cardiac enlargement. echocardiography as compared to chest x–ray is expensive and all centers dont have it, but it can determine heart size, valvular diseases, ejection fraction, left ventricular hypertrophy (lvh), pericardial ...