OBJECTIVES We investigated whether the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) predicts blood pressure or cardiac left ventricular thickness in a clinical population of OSA patients, if adjustments are made for age, gender, use of antihypertensive agents, smoking, body mass index, history of coronary artery disease, hypercholesterolemia and circulating C-peptide concentrations. DESIGN Relat...

AIMS Remodelling of the left ventricle (LV) is associated with adverse cardiovascular events, but the mechanisms of these effects remain undefined. We investigated the relationship of LV mass and geometry to LV function in a large cohort of hypertensive subjects. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 1074 hypertensive individuals without cardiovascular disease recruited from the London Life Sciences...

This study was performed to validate echocardiographic and Doppler techniques for the assessment of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar rats. In 11 Wistar rats and 20 SHR, we compared 51 sets of invasive and Doppler LV diastolic indexes. Noninvasive indexes of LV relaxation were related to the minimal rate of pressure decline...

BACKGROUND Aging and sedentary lifestyles lead to cardiac atrophy, ventricular stiffening, and impaired diastolic function. Both conditions are marked by increased adiposity, which can lead to ectopic fat deposition in nonadipocyte tissues including the myocardium. The effect of excess intramyocardial fat on cardiac function in nonobese individuals is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Cardiac lipi...

BACKGROUND Abnormalities in left ventricular (LV) structure and function occur in patients with diastolic heart failure (DHF). The reasons for the transition from asymptomatic dysfunction to heart failure need better definition, including noninvasive measurements that can detect the transition. METHODS AND RESULTS In 64 patients undergoing right heart catheterization, simultaneous echocardiog...

Background In aortic stenosis(AS) with normal left ventricular ejection fraction(LV EF), circumferential and longitudinal systolic strains(CSt, LSt) are reduced but the underlying mechanisms are uncertain. Conventional indices of afterload(A) per unit of myocardium are suboptimal for strain analysis and based on inaccurate assumptions about myocardial properties, while conventional contractilit...

Background—The heart progressively remodels over the life course, yet longitudinal data characterizing such remodeling in the community are limited. Methods and Results—Using multilevel modeling, we analyzed up to 4 serial echocardiographic observations obtained over a 16-year period in 4062 Framingham Heart Study participants (mean age 45 years, 54% women; 11 485 person-observations). We relat...

BACKGROUND The heart progressively remodels over the life course, yet longitudinal data characterizing such remodeling in the community are limited. METHODS AND RESULTS Using multilevel modeling, we analyzed up to 4 serial echocardiographic observations obtained over a 16-year period in 4062 Framingham Heart Study participants (mean age 45 years, 54% women; 11 485 person-observations). We rel...

Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy is related to blood pressure level and neurohormonal factors. The authors previously demonstrated that arterial norepinephrine levels predict LV mass in middle-aged men who developed hypertension through 20 years. The aim of this 20-year prospective study was to investigate arterial vasopressin, aldosterone, and renin as long-term predictors of LV mass. Normote...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Heart failure occurs frequently in end-stage renal disease patients. However, there are no prospective, longitudinal follow-up data on its prevalence, severity, and risk factors in long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A prospective observational study was conducted in 220 long-term PD patients followed up for 4 ye...