Right Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Chagas Disease Defined by Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography: A Comparative Study with Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Background: Chagas disease leads to biventricular heart failure, usually with prominent systemic congestion. Although echocardiography is widely used in clinical routine, the utility of echocardiographic parameters to detect right ventricular (RV) systolic dysfunction in patients with Chagas disease is unknown. We sought to study the diagnostic value of echocardiography, including speckle-tracking parameters, to distinguish individuals with RV systolic dysfunction from those with normal RV systolic function in Chagas disease using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) as the reference method.

A Challenging Differential Diagnosis: Distinguishing between Endomyocardial Fibrosis and Apical Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Endomyocardial fibrosis, which is a cause of restrictive cardiomyopathy, is characterized by the deposition of fibrous tissue in the apical region of 1 or both ventricles. The condition not only affects the diastolic dynamics of the ventricles, but also the function of the atrioventricular valves. The disease occurs predominantly in tropical regions worldwide and in sub-Saharan Africa.

Adjuvant Pericardial Sac Restraining in Heart Failure Treatment. A Medical Hypothesis Illustrated by a Case Report.

Ventricular constraint therapy has been used to prevent and reverse the progression of heart failure in ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathies. We hypothesized that ventricular restraint should be tried by closing the pericardium that was previously opened following left ventricle topographical projection. The surgical technique presentation is illustrated by a remarkable 13-year outcome of one patient with dilated cardiomyopathy treated surgically by mitral prosthesis, Cox/Maze III surgery to treat atrial fibrillation, and associated to the ventricular constraint using the patient's own pericardium.

A variant technique for the surgical treatment of left ventricular aneurysms.

Objective: To present a surgical variant technique to repair left ventricular aneurysms.

Methods: After anesthesia, cardiopulmonary bypass, and myocardial protection with hyperkalemic tepic blood cardioplegia: 1) The left ventricle is opened through the infarct and an endocardial encircling suture is placed at the transitional zone between the scarred and normal tissue; 2) Next, the scar tissue is circumferentially plicated with deep stitches using the same suture thread, taking care to eliminate the entire septal scar; 3) Then, a second encircling suture is placed, completing the occlusion of the aneurysm, and; 4) Finally, the remaining scar tissue is oversewn with an invaginating suture, to ensure hemostasis. Myocardium revascularization is performed after correction of the left ventricle aneurysm.

Matrix metalloproteinase inhibition attenuates right ventricular dysfunction and improves responses to dobutamine during acute pulmonary thromboembolism.

Activated matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) cause cardiomyocyte injury during acute pulmonary thromboembolism (APT). However, the functional consequences of this alteration are not known. We examined whether doxycycline (a MMP inhibitor) improves right ventricle function and the cardiac responses to dobutamine during APT.

Evaluation of cardiac involvement during dengue viral infection.

Background:  Dengue is a disease whose clinical manifestations range from asymptomatic infections to a severe disease. There have been some previous reports of myocardial involvement in dengue, but this association has not been completely established.

Methods:  From January to July of 2011, patients hospitalized with dengue, confirmed through dengue nonstructural protein 1 and/or immunoglobulin M detection, were included in this study and troponin I and N terminal fragment of B-type natriuretic peptide levels were determined.

Coronary thrombosis as the first complication of antiphospholipid syndrome.

The antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune thrombophilia, characterized by the presence of plasma antibodies against phospholipids, associated with recurrent episodes of venous and/or arterial thrombosis and gestational morbidity (especially recurrent miscarriage). We report the case of a young female patient diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) associated with the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies for a long time, presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) due to proximal thrombosis of the anterior descending artery as the first clinical complication of APS.