Feasibility of digital atrial fibrillation screening in an elderly population : The Ulm heart rhythm weeks.

Aims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) screening in risk populations has the potential to prevent strokes. The authors tested the feasibility of a digital program with initial photoplethysmographic (PPG) self-screening and cardiologist-attended electrocardiographic (ECG) confirmation of screen-positive cases.

Methods: Inhabitants of the city of Ulm aged ≥ 65 years were invited to participate.

Isolated Whipple's endocarditis: an underestimated diagnosis that requires molecular analysis of surgical material.

Tropheryma whipplei is known as the bacterium that causes Whipple's disease, a rare systemic illness typically affecting gastrointestinal tract, joints, and central nervous system. In addition, T whipplei infection may present as an isolated endocarditis. Although previously regarded as a rare condition, T whipplei has been recognized as a major cause of culture-negative endocarditis when integrating specific molecular analysis of surgical material into the diagnostic algorithm.

Prospective randomised trial evaluating a paclitaxel-coated balloon in patients treated with endothelial progenitor cell capturing stents for de novo coronary artery disease.

Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention with stent implantation is limited by the occurrence of re-stenosis and the risk of stent thromboses.

Objective: To define the impact of paclitaxel-coated balloon angioplasty plus endothelial progenitor cell capturing (EPC) stent implantation in de novo coronary artery disease. This combination may reduce neointimal proliferation within the EPC stent and address the risk of stent thrombosis by facilitating rapid endothelialisation.

Myocardial scar extent evaluated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in ICD patients: relationship to spontaneous VT during long-term follow-up.

Patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy have an increased risk for ventricular arrhythmia, since myocardial infarction can be the substrate for re-entrant arrhythmias. Contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has proven to reliably quantify myocardial infarction. Aim of our study was to evaluate correlations between functional and contrast-enhanced CMR findings and spontaneous ventricular tachy-arrhythmias in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy who underwent implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy.

Detection of long-term progression of myocardial fibrosis in Duchenne muscular dystrophy in an affected family: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study.

Background: Detection of myocardial fibrosis and left ventricular dysfunction in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the corner stone for further therapeutic studies. Little is known about the ability of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) to evaluate progression of myocardial fibrosis. Aim of our study was to provide CMR data in a previously genotyped DMD family and to evaluate whether progression of myocardial fibrosis could be visualized.

Combined assessment of myocardial perfusion and late gadolinium enhancement in patients after percutaneous coronary intervention or bypass grafts: a multicenter study of an integrated cardiovascular magnetic resonance protocol.

Objectives: We sought to assess the accuracy of an integrated cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) protocol for the diagnosis of relevant coronary artery or bypass graft stenosis in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) or with previously performed percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary bypass graft surgery (CABG).

Background: CMR is suitable for diagnosing inducible myocardial ischemia in patients with suspected CAD and has been proven to be a helpful diagnostic tool for decision of further treatment. However, little is known about its diagnostic accuracy in patients with known CAD who previously were treated by PCI or CABG.

Blood oxygen level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging using T2-prepared steady-state free-precession imaging in comparison to contrast-enhanced myocardial perfusion imaging.

Background: Diagnosis of inducible myocardial ischemia is important for deciding further diagnosis and therapy in coronary artery disease (CAD). Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is a potential method to evaluate myocardial perfusion reserve alternatively to first-pass perfusion using contrast agents.

Methods And Results: We imaged 46 patients with suspected CAD on a 1.

Cardiac phase-specific shimming (CPSS) for SSFP MR cine imaging at 3 T.

The application of steady-state-free-precession (SSFP) techniques at 3 T systems is still limited by their sensitivity to magnetic field inhomogeneities. Especially during imaging of the heart, the arising signal voids and distortions in the myocardium currently often limit the diagnostic value of the resulting images. Dedicated shim systems providing higher order shimming capabilities have been applied to improve the field homogeneity across the heart.

Diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance first pass perfusion imaging is equally potent in female compared to male patients with coronary artery disease.

Background: Noninvasive diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in women is crucial because of a lower prevalence of CAD in premenopausal women, different cardiac risk profile and pattern of CAD, lower exercise tolerance and more atypical symptoms compared to men. Therefore, we tested the diagnostic power of cardiac magnetic resonance first pass perfusion imaging (CMR-FPPI) for the diagnosis of significant coronary stenoses in females versus males.

Methods And Results: 256 consecutive patients, 77 females and 179 males with atypical or typical chest pain and intermediate risk of CAD were studied by coronary angiography and CMR-FPPI (1.

Impact of percutaneous device implantation for closure of patent foramen ovale on valve insufficiencies.

Background: In patients with percutaneous device implantation for closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO), a 10% incidence of new or worsened aortic regurgitation within 12 months has been reported with echocardiography. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful noninvasive tool to quantify volume and fraction of valve insufficiencies. We studied the acute and long-term impact of percutaneous device implantation for PFO closure on valve insufficiencies in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Local excitation black blood imaging at 3T: application to the carotid artery wall.

A novel approach for imaging large sections of the carotid artery wall at isotropic spatial resolution is presented. Local excitation by means of 2D excitation pulses was combined with a diffusion-prepared segmented steady-state black-blood gradient echo technique enabling the assessment of the carotid arterial wall over a range of up to 15 cm. The carotid arteries of five healthy volunteers were imaged with the proposed technique.

Whole-heart coronary vein imaging: a comparison between non-contrast-agent- and contrast-agent-enhanced visualization of the coronary venous system.

The feasibility of three-dimensional (3D) whole-heart imaging of the coronary venous (CV) system was investigated. The hypothesis that coronary magnetic resonance venography (CMRV) can be improved by using an intravascular contrast agent (CA) was tested. A simplified model of the contrast in T(2)-prepared steady-state free precession (SSFP) imaging was applied to calculate optimal T(2)-preparation durations for the various deoxygenation levels expected in venous blood.

Valvular strands and ischemic stroke.

We report the case of a previously healthy 47-year-old woman suffering an acute embolic stroke in the left middle cerebral artery distribution. A filiform structure along the line of the aortic valve was first identified by transesophageal echocardiography, leading to the diagnosis of a valvular strand. These masses are thought to represent giant Lambl's excrescences, although differential diagnoses include several benign cardiac tumors, e.

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and transesophageal echocardiography in patients with transcatheter closure of patent foramen ovale.

Objectives: We studied the value of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) before and after closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in patients with cryptogenic ischemic events.

Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful noninvasive tool for detailed assessment of cardiac anatomy and function. The relevance of CMRI compared with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in patients undergoing transcatheter PFO closure has not been evaluated so far.

Reproducibility of the proximal flow convergence method in mitral and tricuspid regurgitation.

Background: The follow-up of patients with mitral and tricuspid regurgitation is important for their clinical treatment. We aimed to evaluate the reproducibility of the flow convergence method in mitral and tricuspid regurgitation.

Methods: The proximal flow convergence region was imaged with color Doppler ultrasound scanning echocardiography in 83 patients with mitral regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation, or both.