Purpose: Dual-energy CT (DECT) can be used for quantification of lung perfusion blood volume (PBV), allowing objective evaluation. However, no reports have investigated pulmonary perfusion correlating with pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) in patients with chronic pulmonary diseases. The purpose was to evaluate automated quantification of the lung PBV using dual-energy CT, and its correlation wit...

BACKGROUND Quantitative assessment of the severity of mitral regurgitation (MR) is based on the calculation of the effective regurgitant orifice (ERO), a measure of lesion severity, and of the regurgitant volume (RVol), a measure of left ventricular volume overload. We aimed at evaluating the determinants of RVol in both organic (OMR) and functional mitral regurgitation (FMR). METHODS AND RES...

BACKGROUND The association between systemic sclerosis and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is well recognized. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been reported to play an important role in pulmonary hypertension. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between systolic pulmonary artery pressure, clinical and functional manifestations of the disease and serum...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Pulmonary capillary blood volume (Qc), a component of diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (Dlco), is increased in postcapillary pulmonary hypertension due to valve disease, but is decreased in primitive and thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. This study was performed to evaluate which way pulmonary Qc is affected in patients with chronic infiltrative lung dise...

OBJECTIVE Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune connective tissue disorder characterized by fibrosis. The prognosis of the disease is bad when clinically symptomatic cardiac dysfunction is occurred, therefore early detection of cardiac dysfunction is important in patients with SSc. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of fQRS in superficial electrocardiography in cardiacal...

Bacterial type III protein secretion systems inject effector proteins into eukaryotic host cells in order to promote survival and colonization of Gram-negative pathogens and symbionts. Secretion across the bacterial cell envelope and injection into host cells is facilitated by a so-called injectisome. Its small hydrophobic export apparatus components SpaP and SpaR were shown to nucleate assembl...

Pulmonary hypertension is rare but is one of the complications that occur due to HIV infection. Symptoms of HIV-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension are often non-specific but the main symptom of the disease is dyspnea. In this cross-sectional study, we measured systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (SPAP) by echocardiographic methods among HIV-positive patients who received ART. This rese...

Pulmonary artery catheterisation was carried out in 25 scoliotics aged 13 to 67 years (mean 30.7). Each then performed a progressive exercise test breathing air, and 11 performed a similar test breathing pure oxygen. The mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) increased linearly with oxygen uptake (VO2) and with the work rate. The pressure responses have been described in terms of ther intercept a...

Background—Current guidelines recommend mitral valve surgery for asymptomatic patients with severe degenerative mitral regurgitation and preserved left ventricular systolic function when exercise pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is present. However, the determinants of exercise PHT have not been evaluated. The aim of this study was to identify the echocardiographic predictors of exercise PHT and th...

OBJECTIVES Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is associated with rapid deterioration and poor prognosis in SLE, especially during pregnancy. The prevalence of PAH in SLE in non-tertiary centres is uncertain. This study aims to estimate the point prevalence of PAH and identify risk factors for PAH in a large cohort of SLE patients. METHODS A prospective cross-sectional study of 288 patients...