Hemodynamic mechanical cues play a critical role in the early development and functional maturation of cardiomyocytes (CM). Therefore, tissue engineering approaches that incorporate immature CM into functional cardiac tissues capable of recovering or replacing damaged cardiac muscle require physiologically relevant environments to provide the appropriate mechanical cues. The goal of this work i...

INTRODUCTION Intraparenchymal, multimodality sensors are commonly used in the management of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). The 'gold standard', based on accuracy, reliability and cost for intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is within the cerebral ventricle (external strain gauge). There are no standards yet for intracerebral temperature monitoring and little is known of t...

Programmed ventricular stimuli introduced during sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia frequently reset the tachycardia, resulting in a less than fully compensatory pause. A resetting response curve is generated when the set of return cycles is evaluated as the function of the coupling intervals of the extrastimuli delivered during the ventricular tachycardia. If the stimulated wave fro...

Transthoracic tissue Doppler study of right ventricular regional function in a patient with an arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy A 45 year old man was admitted because of ventricular tachycardia. He was known to suffer from arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). The rhythmic instability was quickly managed with amiodarone and atenolol. During evaluation of the pat...

This editorial refers to ‘Feasibility and reproducibility of left ventricular rotation parameters measured by speckle tracking echocardiography’ by Bas M. van Dalen et al., pp. 669–76, ‘Interpretation of two-dimensional and tissue Doppler-derived strain (1) and strain rate data: is there a need to normalize for individual variability in left ventricular morphology?’ by David Oxborough et al., p...

The secure and haemostatic implantation of the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) apex inflow cannula can sometimes be challenging, especially in the setting of an acute myocardial infarction or significant ventricular wall thinning, when the myocardial tissue may be friable and tissue strength may be compromised. In these cases, surgical complications from this site may present a challenge....

T he development of endomyocardial biopsy as a standard procedure has enabled cardiologists to obtain a direct histological diagnosis in a subset of cardiac disease states. In particular, right ventricular biopsy has become invaluable in the assessment of rejection after heart transplantation, in the tissue diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis, and in the documentation of adriamycin cardiomyopathy....

BACKGROUND Low O2 tension dilates coronary arteries and high O2 tension is a coronary vasoconstrictor but reports on O2-dependent effects on ventricular performance diverge. Yet oxygen supplementation remains first line treatment in cardiovascular disease. We hypothesized that hypoxia improves and hyperoxia worsens myocardial performance. METHODS Seven male volunteers (mean age 38 +/- 3 years...

The echocardiographic features of postinfarction pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle are described for the first time. Because ultrasound allows the detection of soft-tissue structures in a manner not possible with other diagnostic techniques, the left ventricular wall can be visualized separating the left ventricular cavity from the saccular aneurysm which is delineated by pericardium and/or ...