Publications by authors named "Joscha Kandels"
The Effect of Upright Posture on Left Atrial Strain in Competitive Athletes.
J Cardiovasc Dev Dis
September 2024
Article Synopsis
- Left atrial strain (LAS) assessment via speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is useful for detecting left ventricular (LV) issues, particularly in athletes during treadmill exercise tests.
- A study involving 50 male athletes examined LAS in both upright and left lateral positions, measuring various echocardiographic parameters.
- Results showed that LAS metrics and maximum left atrial volume were significantly lower in the upright position compared to the left lateral position, suggesting that posture impacts LA function and should be considered in echocardiography for athletes.
Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) is considered the gold standard for the assessment of left ventricular (LV) systolic function. However, discrepancies have been reported in the literature between LV volumes assessed by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and cMRI. The objective of this study was to analyze the differences in LV volumes between different echocardiographic techniques and cMRI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Transthoracic echocardiography is usually the first non-invasive imaging modality for the detection of Loeffler endocarditis at thrombotic stage. In the recent decade 3D echocardiography and deformation imaging already proved as a helpful tool for the monitoring of left and right ventricular heart disease.
Case Presentation: The present case illustrates the diagnostic role of 3D echocardiography and deformation imaging in the acute stage of right sided Loeffler endocarditis in a 70-year-old Western European (German) woman.
Purpose: Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) represents the gold standard to detect myocarditis. Left ventricular (LV) deformation imaging provides additional diagnostic options presumably exceeding conventional transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). The present study aimed to analyze the feasibility to detect myocarditis in patients (pts) with preserved LV ejection fraction (LVEF) by TTE compared to cMRI.
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- A study assessed the prognostic value of the global myocardial work index (GWI) in 103 patients with moderate aortic valve stenosis (AS), finding that a GWI ≤ 1951 mmHg% did not predict outcomes like the need for aortic valve replacement (AVR).
- Over a follow-up period of about 30 months, survival without AVR was high but did not significantly differ between patients with GWI above or below the 1951 mmHg% threshold.
- The results indicate that, unlike in severe AS cases, GWI may not be a useful indicator for guiding treatment decisions in patients with moderate AS, prompting a call for more research to improve risk assessment in this group.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how concomitant aortic regurgitation (AR) affects the diagnosis of severe aortic stenosis (AS), focusing on Doppler-derived criteria like flow velocity and pressure gradients.
- Researchers analyzed data from 238 patients with severe AS, classifying them based on AR severity and assessing various hemodynamic parameters.
- Results revealed that while maxV and mean pressure gradient increased with AR severity, the effective orifice area (EOA) and geometric orifice area (GOA) remained unchanged, indicating that AR impacts certain measurements but not others in AS assessment.
Article Synopsis
- The assessment of left ventricular function primarily relies on measuring left ventricular volume, which is crucial in valvular heart diseases for evaluating stroke and regurgitant volumes.
- There is an ongoing debate about the accuracy of cardiac volume measurements from echocardiography compared to cardiac magnetic resonance tomography, highlighting concerns over echocardiography's underestimation due to its technical limitations.
- The authors call for a reevaluation of echocardiographic methods in diagnosing valvular heart diseases, advocating for a more reliable quantitative approach, although they acknowledge practical challenges in implementing this in everyday clinical settings.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to understand what factors help predict the progression of moderate aortic valve stenosis (AS) by focusing on left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), diastolic dysfunction, and right ventricular (RV) load.
- Researchers divided 131 patients into two groups based on the number of pathophysiological changes, finding that those with two or more changes had worse outcomes, including lower survival rates without needing aortic valve replacement (AVR).
- The conclusion highlighted that having two or more pathophysiological changes is a significant predictor of outcomes in moderate AS, which can aid in planning patient follow-ups and determining when AVR is needed.
Aims: The present study aims to characterize the genetic risk architecture of bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) disease, the most common congenital heart defect.
Methods And Results: We carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 2236 BAV patients and 11 604 controls. This led to the identification of a new risk locus for BAV on chromosome 3q29.
Patients with severe aortic stenosis are classified according to flow-gradient patterns. We investigated whether left ventricular (LV) mechanical dispersion, a marker of dyssynchrony and predictor of mortality, is associated with low-flow status in aortic stenosis. 316 consecutive patients with aortic stenosis and QRS duration < 120 ms were included in the retrospective analysis.
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