BACKGROUND Although ventricular premature contraction (VPC) commonly arises in subjects with and without heart diseases, the prognosis of VPC has remained controversial and the effect of their morphology on mortality has not been fully determined in subjects without obvious heart diseases. The objective of this study was to assess the morphologic effect of VPC on mortality. METHODS Japanese a...

Mitochondrial morphological dynamics affect the outcome of ischemic heart damage and pathogenesis. Recently, mitochondrial fission protein dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) has been identified as a mediator of mitochondrial morphological changes and cell death during cardiac ischemic injury. In this study, we report a unique relationship between Pim-1 activity and Drp1 regulation of mitochondria...

We analyzed the morphology and rate of ventricular tachycardia induced by programmed cardiac stimulation in 18 patients with recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia who had only one type of ventricular tachycardia during spontaneous episodes. In nine of 18 patients, we induced only one type of ventricular tachycardia, with a morphology and rate similar to those noted during spontaneous vent...

Echocardiographic data were analyzed in 555 patients undergoing mitral balloon commissurotomy (MBC). Patients were enrolled in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Balloon Valvuloplasty Registry from 24 centers. There were 456 women and 99 men with a mean age of 54 years. Before MBC the two-dimensional echocardiographic variables of mitral valve thickness, mobility, calcification, and ...

Determination of atrial situs is of cardinal importance in the analysis of complex congenital heart lesions, and is best predicted from bronchial situs. Previous methods for assessing bronchial morphology, however, are unsuited to the very young patient. To assess bronchial morphology, 100 consecutive patients under 18 months of age (medium 57.5 days) with suspected congenital heart disease wer...

Cardiac hypertrophy is characterized by thickening myocardium and decreasing in heart chamber volume in response to mechanical or pathological stress, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be defined. This study investigated altered miRNA expression and autophagic activity in pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy. A rat model of myocardial hypertrophy was used and confirmed by heart m...

We analyzed the morphology and rate of ventricular tachycardia induced by programmed cardiac stimulation in 18 patients with recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia who had only one type of ventricular tachycardia during spontaneous episodes. In nine of 18 patients, we induced only one type of ventricular tachycardia, with a morphology and rate similar to those noted during spontaneous vent...

Background Congenital bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the commonest inherited cardiac defect that is often associated with a medley of other cardiovascular anomaly, the most frequent being aortic dilatation which may be a consequent of an interplay between genetic and hemodynamic factors. This retrospective study aims to find a correlation between BAV valve morphology with thoracic aortic dimens...

A congenital left ventricular diverticulum is a rare prenatal finding. The four-chamber view of the heart is a standard part of the 18-20 week morphology scan, and evaluation of the heart with colour Doppler imaging has greatly enhanced the detection of rare and subtle cardiac anomalies.

Echocardiography is a non-invasive diagnostic technique which provides information on cardiac morphology, function, and hemodynamics. It is the most frequently used cardiovascular diagnostic test only after electrocardiography. In less than five decades, the evolution in this technique has made it the basic part of cardiovascular medicine. Herein, the evolution of various forms of echocardiogra...