BACKGROUND We screened a large number of liver transplant candidates with contrast echocardiography to detect intrapulmonary right to left shunt (IPS). We found that IPS is frequently present in patients with left atrial enlargement. This finding raises a question concerning the correlation between IPS and left atrial size in patients with liver cirrhosis. OBJECTIVES The aim of this prospecti...

BACKGROUND Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction is a common and severe complication of septic shock. However, conventional echocardiography often fails to reveal myocardial depression in severe sepsis. Recently, strain measurements based on speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) have been used to evaluate cardiac function. AIMS To investigate the role of STE in detecting lipopolysaccharide ...

INTRODUCTION We conducted an ultrasound study to investigate echocardiographic artifacts in mechanically ventilated patients with lung pathology. METHODS A total of 205 mechanically ventilated patients who exhibited lung atelectasis and/or pleural effusion were included in this 36-month study. The patients underwent lung echography and transthoracic echocardiography, with a linear 5 to 10 MHz...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of echocardiography in the diagnosis of sinus of Valsalva aneurysms projecting toward the right heart cavities. Three patients who had a ruptured aneurysm of a sinus of Valsalva diagnosed by echocardiography and confirmed by catheterization underwent cardiac surgery. In two patients, the aneurysm originated from the right coronary sinus and had per...

A wide variety of approaches to M-mode echocardiographic methods for estimation of left ventricular mass have been proposed and employed in hypertensive heart disease. The cube function geometry, which assumes an ellipsoid of revolution with a length twice the minor axis, appears to be optimal provided left ventricular shape is relatively normal. The Penn measurement technique for wall thicknes...

In this paper, the design considerations of a mixed-signal integrated circuit for a 2D matrix ultrasonic transducer will be presented. The IC and the matrix transducer will be put into the tip of a transesophageal (TEE) probe for 3D echocardiography. The challenges associated with the interface electronics include: addressing the huge amount of elements, do the beam steering in the transmission...

A 13-year-old girl presented with clinical features of pulmonary stenosis and regurgitation. Haemodynamic studies suggested the presence of a right ventricular tumour. M-mode and two dimensional echocardiograms indicated one or probably two soft thin walled structures originating from the right atrium. At operation a persistent right sinus venosus valve was removed. One earlier case report desc...