Possible Mechanisms Underlying Aging-Related Changes in Early Diastolic Filling and Long Axis Motion-Left Ventricular Length and Blood Pressure.

Background: The transmitral E wave and the peak velocity of early diastolic mitral annular motion (e`) both decrease with age, but the mechanisms underlying these age-related changes are incompletely understood. This study investigated the possible contributions of blood pressure (BP) and left ventricular end-diastolic length (LVEDL) to age-related reductions in E and e`.

Methods: The study group were 82 healthy adult subjects <55 years of age who were not obese or hypertensive.

Early changes in left ventricular long-axis function in Friedreich ataxia: relation with the FXN gene mutation and cardiac structural change.

Objective: Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is an autosomal recessive condition due to a GAA triplet expansion in the FXN gene that causes increased left ventricular (LV) wall thickness and can progress to LV systolic dysfunction. However, the changes in myocardial function that occur before a reduction in LV ejection fraction are incompletely understood.

Methods: LV long-axis function was assessed by measurement of tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) peak systolic (S`), early diastolic (E`), and atrial velocities (A`) at the septal and lateral borders of the mitral annulus in 60 subjects homozygous for a GAA expansion in the FXN gene who had preserved LV ejection fraction.

Factors associated with mitral annular systolic and diastolic velocities in healthy adults.

Background: Measurements of systolic mitral annular velocity (S'), early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E'), and late diastolic mitral annular velocity (A') are used to assess left ventricular (LV) function.

Objective: We sought to investigate the relationship between septal and lateral annular velocities and determine whether these velocities are related to body size (including body mass index [BMI]), heart rate (HR), blood pressure, or LV mass.

Methods: A total of 60 healthy participants who were normotensive, between age 20 and 52 years, underwent standard echocardiography and measurement of septal and lateral S', E', and A'.

Effect of preload reduction by haemodialysis on new indices of diastolic function.

Assessment of mitral annular motion diastolic velocities by M-mode or tissue Doppler imaging and the propagation velocity of early diastolic filling (Vp) by colour M-mode have been proposed as preload-independent indices of diastolic function. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of preload reduction by haemodialysis on these new echocardiographic indices and to assess the relationship between these indices. The study group comprised 17 patients with chronic renal failure in sinus rhythm with normal left ventricular systolic function who underwent echocardiography 30 min prior to and 30 min following haemodialysis.

Mitral valve thrombus mimicking a primary tumor in the antiphospholipid syndrome.

Cardiac valvular abnormalities detected by echocardiography are relatively common in patients with the primary antiphospholipid syndrome. Valvular thickening with small vegetations are typical, but reports of lesion histology are rare. We report the case of a 50-year-old man presenting with thromboembolic phenomena who had a large (>2 cm), mobile, pedunculated, mass attached to the mitral valve that had the echocardiographic appearance of a primary valve tumor.