BACKGROUND In patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), LV midwall fractional shortening (FS) is used as a measure of LV systolic performance that is more physiologically appropriate than conventional FS. For evaluation of LV volume and ejection fraction (EF), 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiography is more accurate than M-mode echocardiography. The purpose of this study was to assess systo...

Allopurinol ameliorates endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffness among patients without chronic kidney disease (CKD), but it is unknown if it has similar effects among patients with CKD. Furthermore, because arterial stiffness increases left ventricular afterload, any allopurinol-induced improvement in arterial compliance might also regress left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). We conducted...

UNLABELLED Sympathetic overactivity has been noted in various clinical stages of essential hypertension. The purpose of this study is to investigate 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) uptake and washout in patients with borderline and mild hypertension. METHODS To assess cardiac sympathetic function in essential hypertension, we performed 123I-MIBG cardiac imaging and echocardiography in 25 ...

BACKGROUND Patients with diabetic nephropathy are likely to have neurological complications including cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction, which is related to increased risk of mortality. We investigated whether cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy is associated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in diabetic haemodialysis patients. METHODS Holter electrocardiography was carried out for 2...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk, and its characterization and prevalence in chronic renal disease (CRD) should be further studied. OBJECTIVE To establish the diagnosis of LVH in patients with stage-5 CRD using six different electrocardiographic criteria, and to correlate them with left ventricular mass index (LVMI) as obtained b...

Mean serum uric acid (SUA) levels are higher in men than women. In addition, recent studies have suggested that the SUA threshold at which the cardiovascular risk might increase may vary between women and men. In the current retrospective study, by analyzing the data from 219 female and 519 male patients who were free from uric acid-lowering medication, we investigated whether SUA is associated...

BACKGROUND Simple obesity in China is rising rapidly and causing increasing concern. The objectives of our study are to investigate cardiac structure and function in individuals with simple obesity and to analyze the effect of BMI on left ventricular structure and function. METHODS Between January 2012 and July 2014, echocardiography was performed in 361 consecutive patients visiting the outp...

BACKGROUND Sleep apnea is accompanied by some cardiovascular complications. It has even been hypothesized that sleep apnea, itself, can induce some of these complications. Given such controversies, we assessed the left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and systolic pulmonary artery pressure in patients with sleep apnea. METHODS Through convenience sampling, 56 patients with the obstructive sleep ...

Chronic alcohol consumption may lead to progressive cardiac dysfunction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using real-time 3-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) on assessing left ventricular (LV) function in chronic alcoholics.We classified 92 male alcoholics into mild, moderate, and severe groups; 30 age-matched controls were also recruited. LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV...

METHODS We aimed to clarify arteriosclerotic risk and to document possible relationships between cardiovascular risk factors and echocardiographic parameters in paediatric peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. M-mode/Doppler/tissue Doppler echocardiographic studies and lipid/lipoproteins, homocysteine, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HS-CRP) levels and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) we...