BACKGROUND The technique of tissue tracking with balanced steady-state free precession cine sequences was introduced, and allowed myocardial strain to be derived directly, offering advantages over traditional myocardial tagging. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between reverse remodeling as an outcome and left ventricular strain using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imagi...

Objectives: Evaluate electrocardiographic and echocardiographic data in asymptomatic patients affected by Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) compared to healthy subjects, to assess their correlations in a case-control study. Methods: 71 female patients affected by SSc (Group A) were compared to 60 healthy female subjects (Group B). Both patients and controls were evaluated by electrocardiogram and trans-...

High steroid doses are often necessary in congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) to suppress androgens and may increase blood pressure (BP). We evaluated 24-hour BP profile (ambBP), BP during exercise (excBP), and echocardiography in 20 young CAH patients. Systolic and diastolic BP during ambBP and excBP was normal in all patients. None presented myocardial hypertrophy. Nocturnal diastolic BP was...

BACKGROUND Malnutrition among children population of less developed countries is a major health problem. Inadequate food intake and infectious diseases are combined to increase further the prevalence. Malnourishment brings to muscle cells loss with development of cardiac complications, like arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy and sudden death. In developed countries, malnutrition has generally a differ...

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is commonly associated with hypertension and represents an independent cardiovascular risk factor. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the cardiac overload related to hypertension is associated to a specific gene expression pattern independently of genetic background. Gene expression levels were obtained with microarrays for 15,866 transcript...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The purpose was to evaluate changes in the left ventricular mass index (LVMi) among anemic chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients treated with recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO). DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A systematic review of the literature, reporting LVMi for patients before and after EPO therapy, was perfo...

BACKGROUND Although probing dry-weight improves blood pressure control, its effect on echocardiographic left ventricular mass index (LVMI) is unknown. METHODS Shortly following dialysis, 292 echocardiograms in 150 patients participating in the DRIP trial were obtained at baseline and longitudinally every 4 weeks on 2 occasions. RESULTS At baseline, LVMI was 136.3 g/m(2) in the control group...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to compare the effects of olmesartan combined with either azelnidipine or amlodipine on central blood pressure (CBP) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) in hypertensive patients. PATIENT AND METHODS Patients with brachial systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg received olmesartan monotherapy (20 mg daily) for 12 weeks. The patients were then ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate if the new generation beta-blockers are as effective as irbesartan, which is an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), on left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). PATIENTS AND METHODS The study included 85 patients (average age: 56.6±9.6 year) with stage 1 and 2 hypertension, who previously didn't receive an antihypertensive treatment, but diagnosed...

Evidence regarding long term effectiveness of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in Fabry disease (FD) is needed. The aim of this study was to analyze in a cohort of FD patients in Argentina, the long term effectiveness of ERT on renal, cardiac and cerebrovascular parameters. METHODS Patients with genetically proven FD were included from GADYTEF (Argentinean group for the treatment of FD) betwe...