BACKGROUND Obesity is a risk factor for left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and excess cardiovascular disease and mortality. Substantial weight loss is associated with a decrease in cardiovascular mortality. Using volumetric cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, we studied changes in cardiac anatomy and systolic function in women undergoing substantial weight loss in a university hospi...

BACKGROUND Although rarefaction of myocardial angiogenesis has been shown to be associated with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction in animal models of ventricular hypertrophy, this relationship has not been investigated in depth nor validated in humans. We aimed to analyze the relationship of myocardial angiogenesis with various functional and structural ventricular remodeling parameter...

Background—Increased iron store has been linked to risk of cardiovascular disease. Structural alterations of arteries in -thalassemia major patients and in vitro functional disturbance of vascular endothelial cells by thalassemic serum have been described. We sought to determine whether arterial stiffness and endothelial function are altered in vivo. Methods and Results—Thirty thalassemia patie...

The evidence for a link between sleep duration and cardiovascular risk is accumulating in youths, but no study has yet investigated the relationship between sleep duration and change of cardiac structure. In this study, we recruited 559 youths aged 14-28 years from the cohort of Beijing Child and Adolescent Metabolic Syndrome Study. Questionnaire, color Doppler echocardiography, oral glucose to...

Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy is an important predictor of morbidity and mortality in hypertensive patients, and its geometric pattern is a useful determinant of severity and prognosis of heart disease. Studies on LV geometric pattern involving large number of Nigerian hypertensive patients are limited. We examined the LV geometric pattern in hypertensive patients seen in our echocardiograp...

The relative importance of left ventricular (LV) geometry, wall thickness, and mass on the inscription of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) on the ECG was examined in 93 patients; 36 had no LVH on the ECG, 10 had borderline voltage for LVH, and 47 had LVH on the ECG. LV cineangiograms in the right anterior oblique projection were analyzed for LV end-diastolic volume, free wall thickness (h), s...

In December 2009, a 79-year-old white man was admitted to the Department of Cardiology for a moderate dyspnea (New York Heart Association II) with breath. His past medical history included a cardiac surgery with double coronary arteries bypass grafting in 1996 and thyroid cancer treated with surgery and radiotherapy. On admission, the physical examination revealed regular heart sounds at 60 bpm...

One of the most debilitating effects of primary aging is the decline in aerobic exercise capacity. One of its causes is an age-related decline in peak exercise stroke volume. This study's main purpose was to determine the cardiovascular adaptations to aging that most influence peak exercise stroke volume in the elderly. We hypothesized that increased left ventricular (LV) filling and mild conce...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent predictor of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients. Current guidelines for the management of hypertension are based on cardiovascular risk stratification. This study evaluated the possibility that an inexpensive, simple random, single-void urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) would be associated t...

AIMS Type 2 diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor for the development of heart failure. To better understand the mechanism by which this occurs, we investigated cardiac structure, function, and perfusion in patients with and without diabetes. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-five patients with no stenosis >30% on invasive coronary angiography were categorized into diabetes (19) and non-dia...