Appropriate use criteria for echocardiography in the Netherlands.

Introduction: Appropriate use criteria (AUC) for echocardiography based on clinical scenarios were previously published by an American Task Force. We determined whether members of the Dutch Working Group on Echocardiography (WGE) would rate these scenarios in a similar way.

Methods: All 32 members of the WGE were invited to judge clinical scenarios independently using a blanked version of the previously published American version of AUC for echocardiography.

Double orifice mitral valve; a coincidental finding.

A double orifice mitral valve (DOMV) represents a rare congenital malformation characterised by two valve orifices with two separate subvalvular apparatus. This case demonstrates the necessity of careful imaging of the mitral valve apparatus, not only in patients with atrioventricular septal defects, but also in patients with congenital left obstructive heart disease.

Cardiac resynchronization induces favorable neurohumoral changes.

Aim: The aim of this article is to examine whether cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) induces improvements in the neurohumoral system.

Methods And Results: Thirteen patients with HF (left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction <35%) were included. Before and after 6 months of CRT, myocardial (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine ((123)I-MIBG) uptake indices, used as an index of neural norepinephrine reuptake and retention, and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, used as an index of LV end-diastolic pressure, NYHA classification and echocardiographic indices were assessed.

Comparison of aortic stiffness in patients with juvenile forms of ascending aortic dilatation with versus without Marfan's syndrome.

Aortic stiffness in 78 patients with juvenile forms of ascending aortic dilation with Marfan's syndrome was compared with aortic stiffness in 17 patients without Marfan's syndrome. In the ascending aorta and aortic arch, aortic stiffness was similarly increased in the 2 groups. In the descending aorta, however, aortic stiffness was increased only in patients with Marfan's syndrome.