Segmentary coronary reserve in hypertensive patients with echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy, gamma-graphic ischaemia and normal coronary angiography.

Stress thallium scintigraphies are frequently positive in patients with systemic hypertension (SHT), especially in the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). In order to determine whether positive thallium perfusion scans in patients with LVH secondary to SHT and normal coronary angiographies are due to segmentary reduction of coronary reserve (CR), we have studied 10 out of 60 consecutive cases of SHT with echocardiographic LVH, using intracoronary Doppler. We compared coronary blood flow velocity at rest and post-papaverine (PP), and CR in at least two major coronary vessels, always including the one corresponding to the ischaemic segment.

[Somatostatin and ventricular function in liver cirrhosis].

Left ventricular function is studied in cirrhotic patients and in patients with alcoholic hepatitis by means of isotopic ventriculography (Tc99m) both in basal conditions and after the i.v. injection of a somatostatin bolus (250 mcg).

[Diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension by means of continuous, pulsed and color Doppler, and its correlation with hemodynamics].

We have performed a study on 28 patients (20 with valve disease and eight with Eisenmenger syndrome) to evaluate the degree of pulmonary hypertension by means of continuous, pulsed and color Doppler, comparing these results with those obtained at cardiac catheterisation. Invasive systolic pulmonary pressure corresponded excellently with the transtricuspid gradient determined by continuous Doppler (r = 0.97).