[Acceptance of a telemonitoring device in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

Objective: The aim of this trial was to assess the acceptance of a telemonitoring device (Health Buddy®) by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The device makes it possible to monitor vital parameters and to ask questions about symptoms, behavior and disease-specific knowledge.

Method: A single-arm non-randomized clinical study was performed for three months in 43 patients with severe/very severe COPD.

Bronchial asthma causing symptoms suggestive of angina pectoris.

Many patients undergoing pharmacological stress echocardiography for assessing symptoms suggestive of coronary artery disease are found to have a normal test. This study was performed to evaluate whether asthma symptoms simulate angina pectoris. A total 41 consecutive patients who had a negative pharmacological stress echocardiography and had been evaluated for angina pectoris were studied.

[The role of dobutamine stress echocardiography in the clinical routine of a department of cardiology].

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the role of dobutamine stress echocardiography (SE) for diagnosis and therapy of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the routine practice of a cardiological department in which bicycle stress-testing, scintigraphy and coronary angiography are available.

Methods: Between January 1997 and September 1998, 123 patients (79 men, 44 women, 60.1 +/- 9.

[The prognostic value of dobutamine stress echocardiography. A long-term follow-up study].

Background And Objective: The prognostic value of dobutamine stress echocardiography in patients with suspected or known coronary heart disease has not exactly been assessed. Purpose of the study was the assessment of the prognostic value of DSE regarding cardiac events, especially in patients with a normal DSE finding.

Patients And Methods: 316 patients (168 men, 148 women, mean age 61 +/- 10 years), included in this follow-up study, underwent DSE between January 1994 and December 1996 to evaluate clinically suspected or known coronary heart disease.

[Embolism in left-atrial thrombi (ELAT Study): are spontaneous echo contrast, thrombi in the left atrium/appendage and size of the left atrial appendage predictors of possible embolisms?].

Transesophageal echocardiography visualizes the left atrium, the left atrial appendage, thrombi and spontaneous echo contrast within them. The role of these findings as predictors for embolism in atrial fibrillation is unknown. We performed transesophageal echocardiography in 409 non-rheumatic atrial fibrillation outpatients (62 +/- 12 years, 36% female) with no recent (< 1 year) history of embolism.