OBJECTIVES To assess cardiac morphology and function by means of echocardiograms of children with obstructed breathing while asleep. METHODS The study enrolled 40 children of both sexes, aged from 3 to 11 years; 30 of them had obstructed breathing during sleep (group I) and 10 children were healthy controls (group II). The two groups were similar in terms of sex, age, weight and height. The 4...

It was hypothesised that, apart from right ventricular (RV) dysfunction, patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) also exhibit left ventricular (LV) impairment, which may affect disease progression and prognosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate LV performance in a cohort of IPF patients using conventional and tissue Doppler echocardiography. IPF patients exhibiting mild-to...

Aortic Regurgitation is also known as Aortic Insufficiency (AI). It indicates the inability of the aortic valve. During diastole, the aortic valve allows blood flow in the reverse direction from aorta into the left ventricle. Regurgitation is due to incompetence of the aortic valve or any disorder of the valvular apparatus (e.g., leaflets, annulus of the aorta) ensuing in diastolic flow of bloo...

OBJECTIVES To assess the regional diastolic function in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) by using single-beat, real-time, three-dimensional echocardiography (RT-3DE). METHODS Sixty-five patients with HCM in sinus rhythm together with fifty age- and gender-matched normal controls were studied by two dimensional echocardiography (2DE) and RT-3DE. The parameters analyzed by RT-3DE...

The movement of the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve has been recorded with an ultrasound echo technique. The intrinsic mobility of the valve cusps and the rate of ventricular filling are thought to influence the closure of the valve during diastole. Atrial contraction occurs at the end of ventricular diastole and reopens the valve before the mitral valve returns to the closed position befo...

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between ventricular excitability and the extrastimulus (S2) coupling interval in early diastole in humans. The influence of the electrode configuration during bipolar stimulation was examined. Ventricular strength-interval curves were constructed using an eight beat drive train at a cycle length of 600 msec, 2-msec decrements in the S2...

Physiologists and clinicians commonly refer to "pressure" as a measure of the constraining effects of the pericardium; however, "pericardial pressure" is really a local measurement of epicardial radial stress. During diastole, from the bottom of the y descent to the beginning of the a wave, pericardial pressure over the right atrium (P(pRA)) is approximately equal to that over the right ventric...

The role of L-type calcium current ( I Ca,L) in impulse generation was studied in single sinoatrial nodal myocytes of the rabbit, with the use of the amphotericin-perforated patch-clamp technique. Nifedipine, at a concentration of 5 μM, was used to block I Ca,L. At this concentration, nifedipine selectively blocked I Ca,L for 81% without affecting the T-type calcium current ( I Ca,T), the fast ...

We used first-pass radionuclide angiocardiography to assess filling fraction during the first third of diastole, peak filling rate and peak filling rate during the first third of diastole as indexes of left ventricular diastolic performance at rest and after upright bicycle exercise in 32 normal patients and 68 patients with coronary artery disease. The mean filling fraction was unchanged from ...