Diagnostic Accuracy of Dobutamine Stress Echocardiography for Detection of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy in Orthotopic Heart Transplant Patients.

Objective: Cardiac allograft vasculopathy is one of the leading causes of late graft failure and subsequent death in orthotopic heart transplant. Although invasive coronary angiography is the gold standard modality for detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy, dobutamine stress echocardiography has been recently frequently used as an alternative. Our aim was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of dobutamine stress echocardiography for detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy in transplant patients.

Mutation in FBXO32 causes dilated cardiomyopathy through up-regulation of ER-stress mediated apoptosis.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress induction of cell death is implicated in cardiovascular diseases. Sustained activation of ER-stress induces the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathways, which in turn activate three major effector proteins. We previously reported a missense homozygous mutation in FBXO32 (MAFbx, Atrogin-1) causing advanced heart failure by impairing autophagy.

Transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve implantation for failed bioprosthesis.

Objective: This study is a report of clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of experience with transapical mitral valve-in-valve (VIV) replacement.

Methods: Eleven patients with a mean age of 63.7±13.

Protein arginine methyltransferase 6 mediates cardiac hypertrophy by differential regulation of histone H3 arginine methylation.

Heart failure remains a major cause of hospitalization and death worldwide. Heart failure can be caused by abnormalities in the epigenome resulting from dysregulation of histone-modifying enzymes. While chromatin enzymes catalyzing lysine acetylation and methylation of histones have been the topic of many investigations, the role of arginine methyltransferases has been overlooked.

A rare case of takotsubo syndrome within the first day after heart transplantation.

A 39-year-old woman underwent heart transplantation (HTx) for advanced heart failure. The donor was a 36-year-old young woman without past medical history. The first day after HTx, T-waves changes were noted.

Three-Dimensional Echocardiographic Imaging of a Gerbode Defect Complicating Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

We describe a case of a 77-year-old male who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVR) with Edwards SAPIEN XT size 26 mm for severe aortic stenosis. Postprocedural transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) showed left-to-right shunt between the left ventricular outflow tract just below the bioprosthesis and the right atrium across the atrioventricular septum (Gerbode defect). Three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) allowed a detailed anatomical imaging of the shape and the location of a small, circular, atrioventricular defect that was a type II, direct, supravalvular, Gerbode-type defect.

Management of immediate partial bioresorbable vascular scaffold stent thrombosis.

Bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) stents have been proposed recently as an elegant technique for treatment of coronary artery disease. However, perspective that these "dissolvable" stents will replace conventional metallic stents in broad spectrum of clinical conditions and patient categories in the near future has been moderated by non-negligible incidence of stent thrombosis (ST). Mechanical factors, such as strut thickness and malapposition have been implicated in increased risk of BVS ST.

Thrombolytic Therapy as the Management of Mitral Transcatheter Valve-in-Valve Implantation Early Thrombosis.

A 70-year-old male underwent mitral transcatheter valve-in-valve implantation for a failed bioprosthesis implanted 11 years earlier. In the first days following the procedure, he developed thrombosis of the new bioprosthesis with restricted cusp motion. The transmitral mean gradient increased significantly despite effective anticoagulation therapy using unfractionated heparin infusion.

FBXO32, encoding a member of the SCF complex, is mutated in dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common form of cardiomyopathy causing systolic dysfunction and heart failure. Rare variants in more than 30 genes, mostly encoding sarcomeric proteins and proteins of the cytoskeleton, have been implicated in familial DCM to date. Yet, the majority of variants causing DCM remain to be identified.

Echocardiography detects elevated left ventricular filling pressures in heart transplant recipients.

Diastolic dysfunction is a recognized complication in heart transplant (HTx) recipients that limits exercise capacity and is a risk factor for mortality. We investigated the ability of echocardiography to detect elevated pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (mean PCWP>15 mmHg) in HTx recipients. This retrospective study comprised HTx recipients with echocardiography and right heart catheterization within 24 hours (n = 100, 113 investigations).

Pressure reflection in the pulmonary circulation by echocardiography in patients with left heart disease indicates reactive pulmonary hypertension.

Objectives: The two hemodynamic profiles in left heart disease (LHD) with pulmonary hypertension (PH), passive PH with increased pulmonary venous pressure and reactive PH with increased pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR > 3 Wood units, WU), are difficult to distinguish non-invasively. We hypothesized that echocardiographic signs of pressure reflection (PR) in the pulmonary circulation can be used to diagnose reactive PH.

Material And Methods: The study comprised 122 patients divided into three groups: patients without PH (No PH, n = 61), patients with LHD, PH and normal PVR (passive PH, n = 29) and patients with LHD, PH and increased PVR (reactive PH, n = 32).

A high-volume heart transplantation center in an Islamic country.

Cardiac transplants are performed sporadically or not at all in the majority of predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East. We examined our experience in 76 patients who underwent heart transplantation between January 2005 and May 2010 in our center in Saudi Arabia. Excluded were 50 transplants performed between 1989 and 2004, due to incomplete data.

Seventeen years' clinical and echocardiographic follow up of mitral balloon valvuloplasty in 520 patients, and predictors of long-term outcome.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Long-term echocardiographic follow up studies of mitral balloon valvuloplasty (MBV) are scarce. The study aim was to assess the long-term results (up to 17 years) of MBV and to identify predictors of restenosis and event-free survival.

Methods: The immediate and long-term clinical and echocardiographic results for 520 consecutive patients (mean age 31 +/- 11 years) who underwent successful MBV for severe mitral stenosis (MS) and were followed up for a mean of 7.

Immediate and intermediate results of intracoronary stand-alone bolus administration of eptifibatide during coronary intervention (ICE) study.

Background: This study evaluated the immediate and intermediate results of intracoronary (i.c.) eptifibatide administration during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Overview of exercise stress testing.

Exercise stress testing is a non-invasive, safe and affordable screening test for coronary artery disease (CAD), provided there is careful patient selection for better predictive value. Patients at moderate risk for CAD are best served with this kind of screening, with the exception of females during their reproductive period, when a high incidence of false positive results has been reported. Patients with a high pretest probability for CAD should undergo stress testing combined with cardiac imaging or cardiac catheterization directly.

Immediate and long-term results of percutaneous mitral balloon valvotomy in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with severe mitral stenosis.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and value of percutaneous mitral balloon valvotomy (PMBV) in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with severe mitral stenosis (MS). There are very limited data supporting the concept of PMBV in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with severe MS. We analyzed the results of 539 consecutive patients with severe MS who underwent PMBV at our hospital.