Electrical Myostimulation (EMS) Improves Glucose Metabolism and Oxygen Uptake in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients--Results from the EMS Study.

Aims: In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) exercise training is recommended to improve glycemic control. Electrical myostimulation (EMS) of skeletal muscles is a new method to increase exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of EMS in T2DM on glucose metabolism, body composition, and exercise performance using a newly designed stimulation suit that involves trunk, leg, and arm muscles.

Electrical myostimulation improves left ventricular function and peak oxygen consumption in patients with chronic heart failure: results from the exEMS study comparing different stimulation strategies.

Aims: Electromyostimulation (EMS) of thigh and gluteal muscles is a strategy to increase exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The aim of this non-randomised pilot study was to investigate the effects of different stimulation strategies in CHF patients using a newly developed stimulation suit also involving trunk and arm muscles [extended electromyostimulation (exEMS)] in comparison with EMS therapy limited to gluteal and leg muscles (limEMS).

Methods: 60 individuals joined the EMS training programme.

In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy myocardial fibrosis is associated with both left ventricular and left atrial dysfunction.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess LA function by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography and its relation with myocardial fibrosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Methods: We enrolled 30 consecutive HCM-patients in our study (20 males; age: 49.7 +/- 10.

Long-term follow-up of cardiac resynchronization therapy: mechanical resynchronization and reverse left ventricular remodeling are predictive for long-term transplant-free survival.

We sought to determine whether correction of mechanical left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony as defined by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is predictive for transplant-free long-term survival in patients (pts.) undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). In 76 CRT recipients TDI curves from the septal, lateral, anterior, and inferior basal LV were obtained at baseline and after 6 ± 4 months.

Peak systolic longitudinal strain of the lateral left ventricular wall improves after septal ablation for symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy: a follow-up study using speckle tracking echocardiography.

Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) or two-dimensional (2D) strain imaging is a novel ultrasound method to assess myocardial deformation. Peak systolic longitudinal strain (PSLS) of the basal septum (IVS) and the opposite lateral (LVFW) wall were measured in addition to standard echocardiography in 88 consecutive patients (pts) with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HOCM) who underwent a septal ablation procedure (PTSMA) and who were re-evaluated 12 ± 12 after months. At baseline, PSLS was substantially reduced both in basal regions.

Balloon mitral valvotomy after surgical commissurotomy: clinical and hemodynamic results of a large, single-center study.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Patients with restenosis after open or closed surgical commissurotomy (SC) often demonstrate more severe valve degeneration than patients without prior surgery. This may affect the result of balloon mitral valvotomy (BMV) in this patient group.

Methods: The immediate- and long-term results (maximum 106 months; mean 26 months) of BMV with the Inoue balloon in patients with prior SC were compared with findings in patients without prior surgery.