Publications by authors named "Anne-Marie D'Hondt"
Aims: To evaluate the relationships between pulmonary transit time (PTT), cardiac function, and pulmonary haemodynamics in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and to explore how PTT performs in detecting pulmonary hypertension (PH).
Methods And Results: In this prospective study, 57 patients with advanced HFrEF [49 men, 51 years ± 8, mean left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction 26% ± 8] underwent echocardiography, right heart catheterization, and cardiac computed tomography (CT). PTT was measured as the time interval between peaks of attenuation in right ventricle (RV) and LV and was compared between patients with or without PH and 15 controls.
Objectives: To evaluate the ability of chest computed tomography (CT) to predict pulmonary hypertension (PH) and outcome in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
Methods: We reviewed 119 consecutive patients with HFrEF by CT, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and right heart catheterization (RHC). CT-derived pulmonary artery (PA) diameter and PA to ascending aorta diameter ratio (PA:A ratio), left atrial, right atrial, right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular volumes were correlated with RHC mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) .
The early diastolic transmitral velocity/tissue Doppler imaging mitral annular early diastolic velocity (E/e') ratio is used to estimate left ventricular (LV) filling pressures at rest. However, there are only limited data that validate its use during exercise. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to test the ability of E/e' to estimate pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) during symptom-limited exercise in patients with LV systolic dysfunction.
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- The study investigates the relationship between myocardial postsystolic shortening (PSS) and heart muscle viability in patients with chronic left ventricular (LV) ischemic dysfunction, finding PSS is often present in scarred heart tissue.
- A total of 25 patients with impaired heart function underwent various imaging tests, revealing that PSS was more common in severely damaged (transmural) heart segments compared to those with less damage.
- The findings indicate that while PSS was prevalent in areas of significant necrosis, it does not reliably indicate viable heart tissue in chronic LV dysfunction, suggesting its association with scarred regions instead.
Objectives: The purposes of this study were to test whether quantitative real-time myocardial contrast echocardiography (RT-MCE) can detect coronary disease during pharmacologic stress and to compare this approach with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).
Background: Assessing myocardial perfusion during stress is important for the diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with coronary disease.
Method: Thirty-five patients referred for coronary angiography underwent RT-MCE and technetium-99m methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) SPECT at baseline and after 0.
Intermittent harmonic imaging with contrast is increasingly used to detect perfusion defects in patients with coronary disease. To achieve this, image homogeneity and the ability to visualize segments on the lateral and distal portions of the imaging field are important. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the use of specific postprocessing algorithms, such as background subtraction with color coding and parametric display, allows for improved image homogeneity compared with conventional intermittent second harmonic imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Functional mitral regurgitation (MR) is common in patients with heart failure and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, and its severity may vary over time, depending primarily on the loading conditions. Because dynamic changes in the severity of functional MR may affect forward stroke volume, we hypothesized that exercise-induced changes in MR severity influence the stroke volume response of patients with LV dysfunction to exercise, and hence their exercise capacity.
Methods And Results: Heart failure patients (n=25; mean age 53+/-12 years) with LV dysfunction underwent dynamic bicycle exercise at steady-state levels of 30%, 60%, and 90% of predetermined peak VO2.