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...

Cardiomyopathy is an important and frequently life limiting manifestation of Friedreich's ataxia (FA), the most prevalent form of autosomal recessive ataxia. Left ventricular mass is used as primary outcome measure in recent intervention studies but systematic analyses of FA cardiomyopathy are sparse. To assess cardiac hypertrophy by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in vivo, we assessed...

Hypertension occurs in at least 70% of people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is estimated to affect 11% (19.2 million) of the US adult population; CKD is associated with a large and disproportionate burden of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. CKD rivals diabetes mellitus as a coronary risk equivalent in veterans. Established risk factors for cardiovascular disease include left v...

AIMS Obesity leads to hypertension and metabolic disturbances, as well as left ventricular hypertrophy and altered left ventricular geometry. However, the underlying mechanisms behind these relationships are not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate how body composition, blood pressure and metabolic factors relate to left ventricular mass and geometry. METHODS AND RESULTS We include...

1. Seventeen male patients with essential hypertension were studied after 4 weeks of placebo and after 8 weeks of beta-adrenoceptor-blockade therapy with atenolol (100 mg/kg). 2. The influence of the following factors on left ventricular wall thickness and left ventricular mass index as determined by echocardiography was examined: patient's age, duration of hypertension, arterial pressure, bloo...

background: an electrocardiogram (ecg) can provide information on subclinical myocardial damage. the presence, and more importantly, the quantity of coronary artery calcification (cac), relates well with the overall severity of the atherosclerotic process. a strong relation has been demonstrated between coronary calcium burden and the incidence of myocardial infarction, a relation independent o...

background: left ventricular dysfunction is one of the most powerful predictors of early and late outcomes in patients who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting (cabg). the aim of this study was to assess the early results of cabg that predict 30-day mortality and prolonged length of hospital stay (los) after cabg in patients with an ejection fraction (ef) of 30% or less. methods: seven hundr...

the optimal treatment method for right ventricular failure after valve surgery complicated by a low cardiac output has not been determined, although several case reports have been published on patients with ventricular failure and arrhythmia who were bridged to cardiac transplantation using biventricular or left ventricular assist devices. this case series illustrates successful circulatory sup...

introduction: we investigated the difference in left ventricular ejection fraction (lvef) and end-systolic volume(esv) measured by gated myocardial perfusion spect (gspect) in the post-dipyridamole stress and rest periods, and compared the results with the perfusion patterns found in the conventional non-gated tomograms. methods: 297 consecutive patients were studied with post-stress and rest 9...

AIMS An increase of left ventricular mass (LVM) has been reported in obese adolescents in previous studies using echocardiography. The aim of our study was to determine the extent of the increase in LVM and correlation to other risk factors using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in obese and lean adolescents. METHODS AND RESULTS Nineteen obese and 20 lean adolescents were recruited. Followi...