Echocardiography for assessing cardiac risk in patients having noncardiac surgery. Study of Perioperative Ischemia Research Group.

Background: Cardiac complications after noncardiac surgery are a serious cause of illness and death. Echocardiography is being used before noncardiac surgery to assess risk for cardiac complications, but its role remains undefined.

Objective: To examine the prognostic value and operating characteristics of transthoracic echocardiography for assessing cardiac risk before noncardiac surgery.

Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography pre and post percutaneous mitral catheter balloon valvulotomy.

Catheter balloon valvulotomy (CBV) is useful in the relief of rheumatic mitral stenosis. Morphologic scoring of the mitral valve by transthoracic echocardiography is predictive of success with CBV. Horizontal plane transesophageal echocardiography can obtain high quality images of the mitral valve and left atrium, but its value with routine use in the pre and post CBV setting is unknown.

Scintigraphic and electrocardiographic evidence of silent coronary artery disease in asymptomatic hypertension: a case-control study.

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the incidence of physiologically significant coronary artery disease in a group of asymptomatic high risk men with essential hypertension and to assess the validity of noninvasive tests in a subset of these patients undergoing coronary arteriography.

Methods: Two hundred twenty-six asymptomatic men (mean age 61 +/- 8 years) with essential hypertension and no clinical evidence of coronary artery disease but with at least one additional coronary risk factor were studied prospectively. Fifty age- and risk factor-matched normotensive subjects were evaluated as a control group.