During cardiogenesis the epicardium, covering the surface of the myocardial tube, has been ascribed several functions essential for normal heart development of vertebrates from lampreys to mammals. We investigated a novel function of the epicardium in ventricular development in species with partial and complete septation. These species include reptiles, birds and mammals. Adult turtles, lizards...

Endomyocardial biopsies in heart transplant patients offer the opportunity to study the myocardial interstitium in the context of myocardial function. For that purpose endomyocardial biopsies should reliably reflect the composition of the entire myocardium. We determined whether the collagen content in the subendocardial region of the right side of the interventricular septum (site of right ven...

AIMS This study uses pulsed Doppler tissue imaging to analyse right ventricular myocardial function and its interaction with left ventricle in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy involving ventricular septum. METHODS AND RESULTS Thirty-four patients with septal hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 30 normal subjects, comparable for sex, age, body mass index and heart rate, underwent complete standard Dopp...

ume overload was created in open-chest dogs by pumping blood from the left atrium to the right atrium. In seven of eight dogs changes in interventricular septum motion were produced acutely at shunt flow as low as 500 cc/min. When the shunt was decreased or stopped, interventricular septum motion returned to normal. Shunts producing left ventricular volume overload (aorta to left atrium and rig...

Histological relationships and the distribution of junctions between myocardial cells and connective tissue were investigated in the inter-ventricular septum. Pig hearts were studied using 2 techniques: Picro-Sirius red-collagen-staining of frozen sections for connective tissue septa, and immune-staining with antibodies against Desmoplakins for intercalated discs. By overlaying serial sections ...

Metastatic tumors to the heart unlike primary cardiac tumors are not rare. Despite its frequency, cardiac metastasis is commonly detected only during autopsy as the symptoms of disseminated metastasis prevail over symptoms caused by cardiac metastasis and hence is overlooked most of the time. Tumors more commonly found metastasizing to the heart are malignancies of lung, breast, esophagus, lymp...

OBJECTIVE To assess the surgical results in patients with transposition of the great arteries and intact ventricular septum undergoing surgery after the neonatal period. METHODS From January 1998 to March 2004, 121 children with transposition of the great arteries with intact ventricular septum were treated, 29 (24%) of whom after the neonatal period. Selection for surgical treatment was base...

Permanent pacing, being non physiological, often results in ventricular dysfunction over time. Narrower paced QRS duration from pacing the right ventricular outflow tract septum, might result in relatively preserved ventricular function over long term follow up.

Asymmetrical left ventricular hypertrophy secondary to interventricular septum hypertrophy is usually considered a typical phenotype of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In rare cases other conditions such as tumors or lipomatous hypertrophy of the interventricular septum may have a similar presentation. We present a case of a male patient who presented for routine cardiology work up and was diagnos...

Features of longitudinal left ventricular (LV) myocardial deformation in female patients reproductive age with undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia (UCTD) have not been specifically studied before. Aim. To study the features LV using speckle tracking echocardiography UCTD. Material and Methods. A noninvasive assessment systolic direction was performed 20 young adult UCTD (the average 23...