Predicting readmission for heart failure patients by echocardiographic assessment of elevated left atrial pressure.

Background: Pathophysiologically, an elevated left ventricular (LV) filling pressure is the major reason for heart failure (HF) readmission. The 2016 American Society of Echocardiography (ASE)/European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) guidelines provide a simplified algorithm for the echocardiographic assessment of LV filling pressure; however, this algorithm is yet to be sufficiently validated.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively studied 139 consecutive patients with acute decompensated HF.

Considerations in cardio-oncology: Multiple mobile left-sided cardiac thrombi in chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy.

With advances in cancer chemotherapy, the importance of the new clinical discipline of cardio-oncology, which is concerned with the cardiac effects of chemotherapy, is increasing. Herein we describe the case of a 48-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer who presented with symptoms of heart failure due to chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy. Treatment for the patient's breast cancer had included surgery and chemotherapy with anthracyclines and trastuzumab.

Cardiac dysfunction of pulmonary artery aneurysm in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background: Pulmonary artery aneurysm (PAA) occurs in some patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). We evaluated the characteristics of cardiac dysfunction in patients with PAH complicated by PAA.

Methods: Echocardiography and right-heart catheterization were performed in 130 PAH patients to measure the maximum dimensions of the main pulmonary artery (MPA) trunk and evaluate right ventricular (RV) and left ventricular (LV) function.

Evaluation of right atrial function using right atrial speckle tracking analysis in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension.

Background: In patients with pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), right ventricular pressure overload eventually causes right heart failure (RHF), leading to a poor prognosis. Right atrial (RA) overload and RA dysfunction occur in patients with PAH-complicated RHF.

Objectives: We evaluated RA function using right atrial longitudinal strain (RALS) by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) and investigated the association between RALS and the severity of RHF in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) noninvasively.