Normality index of ventricular contraction based on a statistical model from FADS.

Radionuclide-based imaging is an alternative to evaluate ventricular function and synchrony and may be used as a tool for the identification of patients that could benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). In a previous work, we used Factor Analysis of Dynamic Structures (FADS) to analyze the contribution and spatial distribution of the 3 most significant factors (3-MSF) present in a dynamic series of equilibrium radionuclide angiography images. In this work, a probability density function model of the 3-MSF extracted from FADS for a control group is presented; also an index, based on the likelihood between the control group's contraction model and a sample of normal subjects is proposed.

Cardiovascular medicine at face value: a qualitative pilot study on clinical axiology.

Introduction: Cardiology is characterized by its state-of-the-art biomedical technology and the predominance of Evidence-Based Medicine. This predominance makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to deal with the ethical dilemmas that emerge in this subspecialty. This paper is a first endeavor to empirically investigate the axiological foundations of the healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital.

[Cost-effectiveness of stress-only myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging].

Unlabelled: Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging is widely used for diagnosing coronary artery disease (CAD). However, SPECT costs, imaging time, and radiation exposure, limit SPECT indications.

Objective: Determine whether a stress-only SPECT imaging would be enough to obtain a diagnosis of CAD improving nuclear laboratory efficiency.

[Importance of the heart-brain binomial in the management of congenital heart disease].

A case of a two month infant with complex congenital heart disease (aortic coarctation with ventricular septal defect) associated to a cellular brain migration failure is presented. The management strategy consisted on the correction of congenital heart disease by means of a two-stage surgery without a further preoperative evaluation of the neurological status. The patient developed several perioperative complications such as two episodes of cardiac arrest, reconnection to cardiopulmonary bypass, cardiac tamponade, chilothorax and septic shock.

Evaluation of ventricular synchrony with equilibrium radionuclide angiography: assessment of variability and accuracy.

Background And Aims: Equilibrium radionuclide angiography (ERNA) has become an established method for assessing cardiac function. However, limited data are available to evaluate ventricular synchrony with ERNA. The aim of this study was to assess the variability and accuracy of ERNA to evaluate ventricular synchrony by means of phase images in healthy individuals and to compare them with a group of subjects with left bundle-branch block (interventricular dyssynchrony, LBBB) and with a group of patients with nonischemic, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (inter- and intraventricular dyssynchrony).

[Evaluation of the function and ventricular synchrony in patients with latency stage of Chagas' disease].

Objective: To compare the left ventricular function and the ventricular synchrony in patients with Chagas disease in latency stage respect to a control group.

Methods: We analyze a prospective, comparative, transversal and non randomized study of the left ventricular function (LVF) and the ventricular contraction synchronicity (VCS) in 36 subjects with positive serology for Chagas disease (18 males and 18 females), with mean of 15 +/- 5-years-old. The findings were compared with respect to 23 control volunteers (11 males and 12 females) with mean of 28 +/- 5-years-old.

Clinical utility of 99mTc-labeled ubiquicidin 29-41 antimicrobial peptide for the scintigraphic detection of mediastinitis after cardiac surgery.

Background: Previous studies demonstrated that (99m)Tc-labeled-ubiquicidin 29-41 ((99m)Tc-UBI 29-41) imaging is an accurate method for detection of bacterial infections. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical use of (99m)Tc-UBI 29-41 for detection of mediastinitis after cardiac surgery.

Methods: Thirteen patients with suspected mediastinitis after cardiac surgery were included.

Myocardial perfusion and ventricular function assessed by SPECT and Gated-SPECT in end-stage renal disease patients before and after renal transplant.

Background: Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Renal transplant is known to improve left ventricle hypertrophy and systolic dysfunction in selected groups of patients.

Methods: We assessed myocardial perfusion, wall motion and functional parameters by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and Gated-SPECT in 30 consecutive ESRD patients with normal coronary angiograms before and after renal transplantation.

Myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging in patients with myocardial bridging.

Background: Although myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is widely used to assess myocardial ischemia in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease, only a few patients with myocardial bridging have been evaluated with nuclear techniques. Furthermore, it has been suggested that dipyridamole stress images might underestimate perfusion defects compared with exercise stress images. This study was done to determine the concordance of exercise stress SPECT images with that obtained by dipyridamole stress SPECT images as a means of detecting ischemia in patients with myocardial bridging.

[Chest pain syndrome in normal or non-diagnostic conventional ECG at the emergency service. Assessment with myocardial perfusion (SPECT) and ventricular function (Gated-SPECT)].

The arrival of a patient with chest pain syndrome (precordial) to the emergency represents a diagnostic challenge for the physician. Around 6 million persons are seen each year at the Emergency units in the USA. More than half of the patients are admitted for their cardiac evaluation.

Variability of serial same-day left ventricular ejection fraction using quantitative gated SPECT.

Background: The accuracy of quantitative gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) (QGS) and the potential limitations for estimation of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) have been extensively evaluated. However, few studies have focused on the serial variability of QGS. This study was conducted to assess the serial variability of QGS for determination of LVEF between 2 sequential technetium 99m sestamibi-gated SPECT acquisitions at rest in both healthy and unhealthy subjects.

Right ventricular ischemia in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to determine whether right ventricular (RV) ischemia is a contributory factor in the development of RV dysfunction in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH).

Background: Patients with advanced PPH develop RV dysfunction, characterized by a decreased cardiac output, increased right atrial pressure (RAP) and/or elevated RV end-diastolic pressure, which progresses to heart failure and death. The cause of this dysfunction is unknown.

[Myocardial viability. Stunned and hibernating myocardium. Usefulness of myocardial scintigraphy].

The diagnosis of viability in the presence of heart failure in coronary artery disease has acquired great importance due to its excellent therapeutic results. Due to its frequency it has become a public health problem. The characteristics of stunned and hibernating myocardium and the protocols to study perfusion, contractile reserve and metabolic activity are described, with emphasis in the Thallium and Tc99m-sestamibi studies.

Multiplane Transesophageal Echocardiography with Dobutamine in Patients with Biventricular Inferior Myocardial Infarction.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the alterations of ventricular wall movement in patients with acute posteroinferior myocardial infarction with extension to right cavities with multiplane transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), as well as the utility of dobutamine with this technique to analyze myocardial viability. Nine men with a mean age of 51 years fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Myocardial TEE was performed in all the men 72 hours after the acute event with long- and short-axis transgastric images of both ventricles under basal conditions and with dobutamine infusions of 5 and 10 µg/kg per minute.

Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (SPECT) in the evaluation of patients in the emergency room with precordial pain and normal or doubtful ischemic ECG. Study 60 cases.

Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of myocardial perfusion by SPECT and Gated-SPECT in the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome in patients with precordial pain associated with normal or doubtful ischemic ECG within the first 6 hrs of the last episode of pain.

Methods: Sixty such patients who sought attention in the Emergency room were included. Myocardial perfusion SPECT and Gated-SPECT (GSPECT) was performed in all patients using two distinct protocols.

[Usefulness of SPECT (single-photon emission-computed tomography) in the detection of coronary disease].

Objective: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of cardiac SPECT in the detection of coronary artery disease, and the relation with the site, number and severity of the angiographic lesions.

Method: We studied 216 patients; with myocardial perfusion imaging with SPECT (T1-201 and/or Tc-99 Sestamibi) and coronary angiogram. We defined the localization of myocardial perfusion defects (anterior, inferior, septal, lateral or apex), and their correlation with coronary angiogram, based on the location, number and severity of coronary angiographic lesions.

Utility of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Diagnosis of a Left Atrial Myxoma with Regional Pulmonary Venous Obstruction.

A case of a 57-year-old patient with regional pulmonary edema secondary to obstruction of the right lower pulmonary vein by a left atrial myxoma is described. Diagnosis was established by transesophageal echocardiography.

[Simultaneous assessment of perfusion and myocardial viability with 2 isotope studies (thallium at rest and sestamibi in exercise). Initial experience in Mexico and Latin America].

Unlabelled: Rest-stress sestamibi single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has sensitivity and specificity similar to those of thallium 201 SPECT for detection of coronary artery disease. However, sestamibi is not ideal agent to study myocardial viability. There is not published experience in Latin American using dual isotope SPECT protocol to evaluate myocardial perfusion and viability.

[Study, using non-invasive methods, of prostheses manufactured at the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez].

We study the phonocardiogram, M mode, two-dimensional and Doppler pulsed echocardiogram of 30 patients, who underwent implantation of a bovine pericardial bioprosthesis manufactured at the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez. We describe 26 patients with prosthesis in mitral position, 22 females and 4 males, with age between 19 to 60 years. After surgery, 22 were in functional I and 2 in class II of the New York Heart Association Criteria.

[Cardiac involvement in ankylosing spondylitis].

Ankylosing spondylitis is a rheumatic disease that affects the axial skeleton and has predilection for young men. Of its extraarticular manifestations, the cardiac involvement, reported up to 48%, has been pointed out in recent years. It seems to exist a racial variation in the features of the spondylitis and since most of the studies have been performed in northern countries therefore it appears inadequate to extrapolate the conclusions of such studies to our society.