[Balloon aortic valvuloplasty and transcatheter valve implantation in a patient with unicuspid aortic valve and cardiogenic shock due to severe aortic stenosis].

We report a case of cardiogenic shock due to severe aortic stenosis in a 55-year-old patient with a congenital unicuspid aortic valve (UAV). An emergent aortic valvuloplasty was performed in the spoke catheterization laboratory which allowed to achieve transient stabilization of the hemodynamic parameters and to move the patient to the nearest hub hospital with on-site cardiac surgery. Since the surgical risk of an aortic valve replacement was deemed too high, a transcatheter procedure was performed with implantation of a self-expandable prosthesis.

[Left main stent avulsion during percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion].

We report the case of a chronic total occlusion in the left circumflex coronary artery due to the struts of a stent previously placed on the left main artery. The procedure was complicated by detachment of the stent advanced into the culprit lesion within the struts of the previously implanted stent in the left main artery. The extraction of the lost stent was performed using the twisting wire technique, but this operation resulted in a further complication, i.

Left heart longitudinal deformation analysis in mitral regurgitation.

In mitral regurgitation (MR), left atrium (LA) and left ventricle (LV) undergo remodeling even if the patient is asymptomatic. The aim of our study was to identify the best echo index that correlates with MR severity in asymptomatic patients affected by MR. We enrolled 150 MR patients (50: mild, 50: moderate, 50: severe), asymptomatic for exertional dyspnea and 50 healthy controls.

Traditional and innovative echocardiographic parameters for the analysis of right ventricular performance in comparison with cardiac magnetic resonance.

Aims: Right ventricle fractional area change (RVFAC), tissue Doppler and M-mode measurements of tricuspid systolic motion [tricuspid Sm and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE)], and 3D echocardiography are the current non-invasive methods for the quantification of RV systolic function; RV deformation analysis by speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) has recently allowed the analysis of RV performance. Using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) as the reference standard, this study aimed at exploring the correlation between the traditional (fractional shortening, s'RV, TAPSE) and innovative (strain) echocardiographic parameters and RV ejection fraction (RVEF) measured by CMR.

Methods And Results: CMR and transthoracic echo-Doppler were performed in 63 patients referred for clinical assessment.

Usefulness of atrial deformation analysis to predict left atrial fibrosis and endocardial thickness in patients undergoing mitral valve operations for severe mitral regurgitation secondary to mitral valve prolapse.

In patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) referred for cardiac surgery, left atrial (LA) remodeling and enlargement are accompanied by mechanical stress, mediated cellular hypertrophy, and interstitial fibrosis that finally lead to LA failure. Speckle tracking echocardiography is a novel non-Doppler-based method that allows an objective quantification of LA myocardial deformation, becoming useful for LA functional analysis. We conducted a study to evaluate the relation between the traditional and novel atrial indexes and the extent of ultrastructural alterations, obtained from patients with severe MR who were undergoing surgical correction of the valvular disease.

Left ventricular remodeling and torsion dynamics in hypertensive patients.

Left ventricular (LV) torsion is a fundamental component of wall motion and plays an important role to optimize ventricular ejection fraction. The aim of our study was to calculate by speckle tracking echocardiography LV twist angle in patients with hypertension and LV remodeling, analyzing torsional indices in all patterns of hypertrophy, in comparison to torsional dynamics of age-matched healthy subjects. Hypertensive patients (n = 202) were divided in three groups, patients with concentric remodeling (n = 70), concentric hypertrophy (n = 68) and eccentric hypertrophy (n = 64), in relation to the echocardiographic measurements of relative wall thickness and LV mass, analyzing their torsional patterns by speckle tracking in comparison to age-matched control group.