Myocardial gene expression alterations in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

Aims: To assess cardiac gene expression in peripheral blood cells of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) and its relationship to echocardiographic left ventricular (LV) function.

Methods And Results: A complete echocardiographic study and blood sampling were performed in 65 consecutive stable IDCM patients with LV ejection fraction (LVEF) 31.76 +/- 10.

Noncompaction myocardium imaging with multiple echocardiographic modalities.

Noncompaction myocardium of the left ventricle (LV) is a genetically heterogeneous congenital cardiomyopathy, that has only been described during the last two decades. Echocardiography plays a pivotal role as a first line diagnostic tool of this rare abnormality. The present case describes the imaging of the noncompacted myocardium using varying echocardiographic modalities.

NT-proBNP response to dobutamine stress echocardiography predicts left ventricular contractile reserve in dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background: Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and left ventricular (LV) inotropic reserve are major prognostic indexes in heart failure (HF).

Aims: To investigate the relationship between N-terminal-proBNP (NT-proBNP) changes in response to dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) and the LV inotropic reserve, in HF patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DC).

Methods: We studied 41 patients with DC, LVEF 31.