Preoperative left atrial minimum volume as a surrogate marker of postoperative symptoms in senile patients with aortic stenosis who underwent surgical aortic valve replacement.

Background: Previous reports have shown that postoperative symptoms despite successful surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) are not uncommon depending on severity of myocardial fibrosis in patients with aortic stenosis (AS). Left atrial minimum volume (LAV) at end-diastole determined by direct exposure of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure may be useful as a surrogate marker of postoperative symptoms in patients with AS undergoing AVR.

Methods And Results: We studied 75 patients with AS who underwent AVR and were followed up to 600 days after AVR.

Value of tissue-tracking tricuspid annular plane by speckle-tracking echocardiography for the assessment of right ventricular systolic dysfunction.

Background: Assessment of right ventricular (RV) function remains challenging because of its complex geometry. Application of speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) to the tricuspid annulus provides rapid and automated assessment of the midpoint of the tricuspid annular plane displacement (TAD). The aim of this study was to investigate the value of tissue-tracking TAD for the assessment of RV systolic dysfunction.

Anticoagulation combined with antiplatelet therapy in patients with left ventricular thrombus after first acute myocardial infarction.

Aims: There are limited data about the optimal anti-thrombotic therapy for preventing embolism while minimizing bleeding events in patients with first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) complicated by left ventricular thrombus (LVT).

Methods And Results: Among 2301 consecutive patients with AMI hospitalized between 2001 and 2014, we studied 1850 patients with first AMI who discharged alive to investigate clinical characteristics, incidence of systemic embolism (SE), and association between anticoagulation and embolic or bleeding events. Left ventricular thrombus was diagnosed by echocardiography, left ventriculography, or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in 92 (5.

Left ventricular apical aneurysm due to unrecognized sarcoidosis.

A 47-year-old woman was hospitalized for syncope. An electrocardiogram showed complete right bundle branch block and T-wave inversion in leads III, aVF, and V2-4. Cardiac catheterization was performed since the echocardiogram demonstrated the existence of a left ventricular apical aneurysm and apical thrombus.