Isolated noncompaction of the myocardium: an exceedingly rare cardiomyopathy. A case report.

Isolated noncompaction of the left ventricular myocardium is a rare cardiac disorder due to an arrest in myocardial morphogenesis. It is characterized by prominent and excessive trabeculation in a ventricular wall segment, with deep intertrabecular spaces perfused from the ventricular cavity. Echocardiographic findings are important clues for the diagnosis.

[The exercise test with atropine].

Background: Exercise testing remains the most accessible and widely used technique for the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) and for the assessment of its severity. Clinical usefulness of the simple exercise test is limited by poor sensitivity and imperfect specificity. Many patients referred for diagnostic stress testing cannot achieve an adequate increase in heart rate due to lack of motivation, poor physical condition, or medications.

Digital stress-echocardiography using a public domain program for the Macintosh personal computer.

Left ventricular wall motion abnormalities secondary to stress-induced myocardial ischemia can be detected with difficulty by mentally comparing echocardiographic images sequentially recorded on videotape. Digital stress-echocardiography, a combination of ultrasound imaging and digital archiving technologies, at least partially can overcome this problem: the technique is based on reviewing images at rest and after stress (exercise or pharmacological) side by side in dual- or quad-screen digital format, in a synchronized cine-loop, as if obtained simultaneously. This technique however is presently not widely used, due to the high cost of most commercially available systems.

[Acute myocardial ischemia: ECG or echocardiography? Considerations on a clinical case].

We present a clinical case and a review of the literature on the usefulness of two-dimensional echocardiography for the diagnosis of acute myocardial ischemia in patients presenting with chest pain but without diagnostic electrocardiographic changes. The case refers to a patient admitted a few hours after an episode of prolonged chest pain without diagnostic electrocardiographic changes, but with a severe wall motion abnormality assessed by two-dimensional echocardiogram. The electrocardiogram obtained 24 hours after admission showed giant negative T waves in the anterior chest leads when the patient was asymptomatic and the echocardiogram showed disappearance of wall motion abnormalities.

[Coronary angioplasty in postinfarct angina].

Background: The recurrence of transient myocardial ischemia is a frequent event in the course of acute myocardial infarction. Postinfarction angina develops more frequently after a non-Q wave infarction, and after effective thrombolysis; when uncontrolled by standard medical treatment, it is associated with an increased incidence of unfavorable cardiac events. Therapeutic strategies involve aggressive medical therapy, frequent use of early angiography, and mechanical coronary revascularization with bypass surgery or transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA).

[Angiographic morphology of coronary lesions in various syndromes of ischemic cardiopathy].

The angiographic morphology of coronary lesions is often completely ignored in the prognostic and decision-making process related to patients with coronary disease. We performed this study to evaluate the possibility of identifying complex or complicated atherosclerotic lesions by means of routine diagnostic coronary arteriography, and to assess their prevalence in the different syndromes of ischaemic heart disease. From an overall group of 200 successive cases studied using coronary angiography, 111 patients with significant coronary artery disease in whom a "culprit lesion" could be identified were retrospectively selected.

[Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in infants as a clinical manifestation of dilated cardiomyopathy].

Two cases are described of infants in whom paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia was the first clinical manifestation of an underlaying dilatating cardiomyopathy. To stop the tachycardia in such cases drugs without inotropic negative effect are recommended.

[Prosthetic pathology of mechanical and biological valves in the mitral and aortic position. II. Hemodynamic-angiographic evaluation and anatomo-surgical aspects].

The catheterization parameters of 42 patients with surgically confirmed prosthetic valve malfunction were retrospectively analyzed in order to evaluate the role of hemodynamic and angiocardiographic examination in the diagnosis of prosthetic complications. The invasive investigation provided in all cases more precise informations regarding the type and grade of prosthetic malfunction as compared to noninvasive techniques. Transvalvular gradients could be quantified, the amount of regurgitation could be defined and associated lesions (paraprosthetic aneurysms, aortic root dissection, fistulas secondary to bacterial endocarditis) could be recognized.

[The diagnosis of prosthesis pathology in biological and mechanical valves. I. Clinical and echocardiographic evaluation].

We retrospectively evaluated the clinical and echocardiographic findings of 50 patients with documented malfunctioning of cardiac prosthetic valves. The prostheses, mechanical or biological, were in 24 cases in a mitral and in 26 cases in an aortic position. Prosthetic dysfunction was due to thrombosis, fibro-calcific degeneration, fibrous cloth, bacterial infection, dehiscence, mismatch.

[The pressure-dimension curve and midwall stress. Use of a combined hemodynamic-echocardiographic method and correlation with contrast ventriculography].

An invasive (left ventricular pressure recording) and a noninvasive technique (M-mode echocardiography) were combined during the hemodynamic study of 15 patients with various degrees of left ventricular impairment, in order to provide left ventricular function parameters independent from contrast studies. Left ventricular pressure, dimension and wall thickness changes were continuously digitized on a computer system, which was able to derive the ventricular pressure-dimension loop and to calculate the midwall equatorial stress at end-diastole and peak-systole. The parameters derived from the loop (diastolic work, net systolic work, cycle efficiency) and midwall meridional and circumferential stresses were compared with the results of contrast ventriculography and with the wall hypertrophy index.

Diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis made by ultrastructural examination of endomyocardial biopsy. A case report.

A case of cardiac amyloidosis is described in which clinical and scintigraphic findings were those of ischemic heart disease. Electrocardiogram disclosed low voltages in the peripheral leads and a pattern of anterior pseudo-myocardial infarction. 2D-echocardiography showed thickened cardiac walls and a "granular sparkling" appearance of the septum.

[Computer-guided cardiological examination and data management with a microcomputer].

A computer program is presented apt to be run on a personal computer. The program allows a computer-guided cardiological examination of standard quality, permits a rapid recall of patients data and makes it possible to obtain statistical analyses.

Effects of the cold pressor test on the left ventricular function of patients with coronary artery disease.

We used the cold pressor test as provocative of myocardial ischemia in 23 subjects evaluated for chest pain on effort. Seven of them (group N) had normal coronary arteries, and 16 (group CAD) had critical stenoses along the main branches of the left coronary artery. In both groups exposure to cold induced increase in arterial pressure and double product.

[M.-mode and two-dimensional echocardiographic diagnosis of pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle (author's transl)].

The echocardiographic features of a case of postinfarction pseudoaneurysm of the left ventricle are described. M-mode echocardiography displayed an echo-free space behind the posterior left ventricular wall and two-dimensional echocardiography defined the saccular contour of the pseudoaneurysm and its probable communication with the ventricular cavity. A second echocardiographic examination--a week later--revealed a marked enlargement of the pseudoaneurysm and a characteristic fast backward early systolic motion of the ventricular wall interposed between left ventricular cavity and the saccular aneurysm; this motion is interpreted as a passive displacement of the ruptured wall during ventricular systole, and allows a differential diagnosis with similar echocardiographic M-mode aspects, due to pericardial effusion, pleural effusion or pericardial cysts.