Balloon aortic valvuloplasty for severe aortic stenosis before urgent non-cardiac surgery.

Background: Balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) has been proposed as a therapeutic option in patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis (SAS) who need urgent non-cardiac surgery (NCS). Whether this strategy is better than medical therapy in this very specific population is unknown.

Aims: We aimed to evaluate the clinical benefit of an invasive strategy (IS) with preoperative BAV in patients with SAS requiring urgent NCS.

Relationship between transmural extent of necrosis and quantitative recovery of regional strains after revascularization.

Objectives: To better understand the quantitative relationship of recovery of regional and global dysfunction after revascularization in chronic infarcts with variable transmural extent of necrosis by delayed enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance.

Background: Studies relating transmurality of delayed enhanced magnetic resonance to functional recovery in dysfunctional myocardium using semiquantitative Likert scales have demonstrated the intermediate likelihood (50% probability) of recovery of dysfunction in subendocardial scars.

Methods: Forty-two patients with chronic left ventricular dysfunction due to coronary artery disease underwent tagged and delayed enhanced magnetic resonance before and 10 +/- 7 months after revascularization (coronary artery bypass graft: 35, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty: 7).

Characterization of acute and chronic myocardial infarcts by multidetector computed tomography: comparison with contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance.

Background: We evaluated whether contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (CE-MDCT) might characterize myocardial infarct (MI) with patterns similar to those obtained by contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (CE-MR) and studied the underlying mechanisms.

Methods And Results: In vivo infarct characterization by CE-MDCT was shown to be feasible between 4 and 20 minutes after contrast injection in 7 pigs with MI. Subsequently, in 16 patients with acute MI and 21 patients with chronic MI, contrast patterns by CE-MDCT were related to CE-MR.

Head-to-head comparison of three-dimensional navigator-gated magnetic resonance imaging and 16-slice computed tomography to detect coronary artery stenosis in patients.

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of three-dimensional navigator-gated magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and 16-slice multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT) versus quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) for the detection of coronary artery stenosis in patients.

Background: Both MR and MDCT are novel non-invasive tests, which have been proposed for noninvasive detection of coronary artery disease. Yet their diagnostic accuracy has not been directly compared in the same population.