Feasibility and relevance of right parasternal view for assessing severity and rate of progression of aortic valve stenosis in primary care.

Background: Right parasternal view (RPV) is important in assessing the severity of aortic stenosis (AS). However, the feasibility and relevance of RPV in primary care is unresolved. Moreover, information regarding the role of RPV in the evaluation of the hemodynamic progression of AS is lacking.

Effect of Echocardiographic Grading of Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction by Different Classifications in Primary Care.

The presence of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction (DD) as characterized by Doppler echocardiography is associated with worse overall mortality both in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. However, available data on this topic come from referral centers and have been obtained by different, validated algorithms for each single study. Thus, we aimed at determining the feasibility of comprehensive evaluation of LVDD in a primary care outpatient setting and at testing the concordance of different methodological approaches in grading diastolic dysfunction.

Association of left ventricular longitudinal and circumferential systolic dysfunction with diastolic function in hypertension: a nonlinear analysis focused on the interplay with left ventricular geometry.

Background: The relationships of left ventricular (LV) longitudinal and circumferential systolic dysfunction with diastolic performance in hypertensive patients have never been compared.

Methods And Results: In 532 asymptomatic hypertensive patients, circumferential function was assessed with the use of midwall fractional shortening (mFS) and stress-corrected mFS (SCmFS), whereas longitudinal function was assessed with the use of left atrioventricular plane displacement (AVPD) and systolic mitral annulus velocity (s'). Early diastolic annular velocity (e') and the E/e' ratio were measured.

Hemodynamic progression and outcome of asymptomatic aortic stenosis in primary care.

The prognostic relevance of a rapid rate of hemodynamic progression of aortic stenosis (AS) has been predominantly investigated in tertiary centers. We reviewed the clinical and echocardiographic data from 153 asymptomatic patients with AS (age 77 ± 9 years; 65% men), with normal left ventricular function and paired echocardiograms ≥4 months apart (mean 2.9 ± 2.

Determinants of echocardiographic left atrial volume: implications for normalcy.

Aims: The relative role of multiple determinants of left atrial volume index (LAVi) in athletes and non-athletes is not fully defined. Thus, we decided to prospectively assess the determinants of LAVi in healthy individuals and competitive athletes over a wide age range.

Methods And Results: Four hundred and eighteen healthy individuals (mean age 41.