Upright treadmill vs. semi-supine bicycle exercise echocardiography to provoke obstruction in symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a pilot study.

Aims: Recent findings regarding hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) haemodynamics emphasized the relationship between symptoms, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO), and the preload condition as the venous return level. As various types of exercises have different effects on peripheral vascular beds, this study sought to compare upright treadmill exercise echocardiography (EE) to semi-supine bicycle EE in maximum provoked LVOTO in HCM patients.

Methods And Results: Semi-supine bicycle and upright treadmill EE were prospectively performed in HCM patients with New York Heart Association functional Class II.

Morphological and functional abnormalities pattern in hypertrophy-free HCM mutation carriers detected with echocardiography.

To evaluate if morphological or functional abnormalities could be detected with echocardiography in hypertrophic myocardiopathy (HCM) mutation carriers without left ventricle (LV) hypertrophy has developed. HCM is caused by extensive genes mutations found in two-third of patients. Because screening for carriership of a large population is unreasonable, identification of asymptomatic subjects is confined to the use of imaging such as echocardiography, by which subtle abnormalities can be detected.

Perioperative management of a patient undergoing a novel mini-invasive percutaneous transcatheter left ventricular reconstruction procedure.

Survivors of myocardial infarction might have residual damage and higher risks of developing heart failure. This increasing complication encompasses up to 45% of all infarcts. As anesthesiologists we will have to perform anesthesia more frequently in patients with such challenging medical history schedule to undergo mini-invasive surgical procedures.

Efficacy and follow-up of transcatheter aortic valve implantation in patients with radiation-induced aortic stenosis.

Objective: To investigate transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) feasibility, effectiveness and safety in radiation-induced aortic valve stenosis cases.

Methods: 198 consecutive patients referred for TAVI were prospectively enrolled. They were divided into two groups: patients with a history of chest radiation therapy with suspected radiation-induced valvular disease (RXT) and others with suspected degenerative aortic valve stenosis (NRXT).

Abnormal left ventricular contraction sequence in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients: first description of hypersynchrony and invert synchrony.

The aim of this study was to compare left ventricular contraction sequence in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and healthy controls. Normal left ventricular contraction sequence in healthy controls exhibits an apex-to-base delay (ABD) contributing to efficient cardiac mechanics (physiologic asynchrony). Echocardiographic data from 20 controls and 40 HCM patients were prospectively analyzed.

Clinical and imaging description of the Maron subtypes of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Longitudinal strain analysis enables early detection of left ventricular (LV) contraction abnormalities in patients with preserved ejection fraction. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is associated with low values of regional and global longitudinal myocardial deformations. In addition to contraction abnormalities, LV regional strain abnormalities are partially related to the degree of hypertrophy.