Background: Cardiac blood cysts are exceedingly rare cardiac tumours usually found on cardiac valves in infants. We report and discuss a rare unique case wherein a giant atrial septal cardiac blood cyst was found in an adult.
Case Summary: A 59-year-old Chinese lady with history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and transient ischaemic attack presented with atypical chest pain.
Introduction: Data on patients with small aortic annuli (SAA) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are limited. We aim to describe the impact of aortic annular size, particularly SAA and TAVI valve type on valve haemodynamics, durability and clinical outcomes.
Method: All patients in National Heart Centre Singapore who underwent transfemoral TAVI for severe symptomatic native aortic stenosis from July 2012 to December 2019 were included.
The rate of aortic stenosis (AS) progression in patients with moderate AS is unclear. This study examined the risk factors of progression from moderate to severe AS and its impact on clinical outcomes. A total of 954 patients with moderate AS (valve area >1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Clinical guidelines recommend that the exercise protocol of a stress echocardiogram is selected to induce volitional exhaustion after a target duration of at least 8 minutes. While the Bruce protocol is very commonly used for clinical stress tests, it is known to be "steep", and many patients therefore fail to reach 8 minutes. We studied predictors of failure and developed a method for identifying patients not suitable for Bruce protocol which was accurate and yet simple enough to be used as a point-of-care decision support tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and prognostic value of the extent of extra-aortic valvular cardiac abnormalities in a large multicenter registry of patients with moderate AS.
Background: The prognostic significance of a new classification system that incorporates the extent of cardiac injury (beyond the aortic valve) has been proposed in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). Whether this can be applied to patients with moderate AS is unclear.
Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant comorbidity in aortic stenosis (AS) patients. We examined the impact of baseline CKD, postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) and CKD progression on clinical outcomes in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).
Materials And Methods: Consecutive patients with severe AS who underwent TAVI were classified into CKD stages 1-2 (≥60 mL/min/1.
Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) is a high-risk condition especially when filling pressure is raised, and earlier reports have suggested that E/e' is associated with poor outcome. However, whether E/e' predicts risk better than LVEF, which is the current standard of practice, is not known. We investigated this question in the largest and most rigorous study of MI patients so far.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiac size measurements require indexing to body size. Allometric indexing has been investigated in Caucasian populations but a range of different values for the so-called allometric power exponent () have been proposed, with uncertainty as to whether allometry offers clinical utility above body surface area (BSA)-based indexing. We derived optimal values for in normal echocardiograms and validated them externally in cardiac patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The left ventricle (LV) ejects blood into the proximal aorta. Age and hypertension are associated with stiffening and dilation of the aortic root, typically viewed as indicative of adverse remodeling. Based on analytical considerations, we hypothesized that a larger aortic root should be associated with lower global afterload (effective arterial elastance, EA) and larger stroke volume (SV).
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