Increased mean aliphatic lipid chain length in left ventricular hypertrophy secondary to arterial hypertension: A cross-sectional study.

About 77.9 million (1 in 4) American adults have high blood pressure. High blood pressure is the primary cause of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), which represents a strong predictor of future heart failure and cardiovascular mortality.

Lack of Correlations between Electrophysiological and Anatomical-Mechanical Atrial Remodeling in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) progressively leads to electrical remodeling (ER) and anatomical-mechanical remodeling (AR), whose relationships in humans remain poorly known.

Methods: ER and AR were compared in patients undergoing percutaneous radiofrequency (RF) ablation for AF. ER was defined by right and left appendage activation rates as a surrogate for atrial refractory periods.

[Obesity and the prognosis of heart failure: the obesity paradox, myth or reality?].

Obesity has now reached epidemic proportions worldwide. Obesity is associated with numerous comorbidities, including hypertension, lipid disorders and type II diabetes, and is also a major cause of cardiovascular disease, coronary disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and sudden death. Obesity is the main cause of heart failure in respectively 11% and 14% of cases in men and women.

Prediction of all-cause mortality from gated-SPECT global myocardial wall thickening: comparison with ejection fraction and global longitudinal 2D-strain.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the correlation between global wall thickening (GWT) obtained by gated-single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and echocardiographic measures [ejection fraction (EF), global longitudinal strain (GLS), and strain rate (GLSR)] and to compare their prognostic value for all-cause mortality.

Methods And Results: Seventy-four patients with referral for dipyridamole myocardial perfusion SPECT were prospectively included and underwent transthoracic echocardiography to measure left ventricular EF, GLS, and GLSR. The strongest correlation with GWT was for EF (R = 0.

Relation between left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and left ventricular shape in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging study.

Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathies (HCM) are often associated with left ventricular (LV) outflow tract obstruction, which can explain symptoms and impact prognosis.

Aims: To better understand the mechanisms that link obstruction and LV shape in HCM.

Methods: Patients with HCM who underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging were included retrospectively.

New concept of myocardial longitudinal strain reserve assessed by a dipyridamole infusion using 2D-strain echocardiography: the impact of diabetes and age, and the prognostic value.

Aims: Although dipyridamole is a widely used pharmacological stress agent, the direct effects on myocardium are not entirely known. Diabetic cardiomyopathy can be investigated by 2D-strain echocardiography. The aim of this study was to assess myocardial functional reserve after dipyridamole infusion using speckle-tracking echocardiography.

Metabonomics analysis of plasma reveals the lactate to cholesterol ratio as an independent prognostic factor of short-term mortality in acute heart failure.

Objective: Mortality in heart failure (AHF) remains high, especially during the first days of hospitalization. New prognostic biomarkers may help to optimize treatment. The aim of the study was to determine metabolites that have a high prognostic value.

Blood signature of pre-heart failure: a microarrays study.

Background: The preclinical stage of systolic heart failure (HF), known as asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction (ALVD), is diagnosed only by echocardiography, frequent in the general population and leads to a high risk of developing severe HF. Large scale screening for ALVD is a difficult task and represents a major unmet clinical challenge that requires the determination of ALVD biomarkers.

Methodology/principal Findings: 294 individuals were screened by echocardiography.

Transseptal implantation of a left ventricular pacing lead for an ectopic location of the coronary sinus ostium in the left atrium.

Congenital abnormalities of the coronary sinus (CS) are rare but can be responsible for unsuccessful implantation of a cardiac resynchronization therapy device. We report the case of an ectopic drainage of the CS in the left atrium. A left ventricular lead was implanted by the transseptal route.

[Management of aortic dissection. Stent grafts for who?].

Acute aortic syndrome (AAS) describes several life threatening aortic pathologies. Acute aortic syndrome include intramural haematoma, penetrating aortic ulcer and acute aortic dissection. Advances in both imaging and endovascular treatment has led to an increase in diagnosis and improved management of these often catastrophic pathologies.

[Stress cardiomyopathy, a topical cardiac disorder].

Stress cardiomyopathy (Tako-Tsubo, Broken Heart syndrome, or apical ballooning syndrome) was recently recognized as a distinct clinical entity. The aims of this review are to define this acute and reversible cardiomyopathy and to list its major clinical, biological and angiographic features. We performed a Medline scan for all relevant case series.

ST-segment changes after direct current external cardioversion for atrial fibrillation. Incidence, characteristics and predictive factors.

Background: Incidence, characteristics and predictive factors of transient ST-segment changes after DC shock are poorly known.

Methods: 91 consecutive pts referred for external cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF) (61 men, 69±10 yo) were prospectively included. The presence of ST elevation or depression was assessed on 12 lead-ECG immediately after the first DC shock.

Real-time 3D transoesophageal echocardiography for guiding Amplatzer septal occluder device deployment in an adult patient with atrial septal defect.

A 32-year-old male with secundum atrial septal defect underwent percutaneous transcatheter occlusion. The procedure was performed under general anaesthesia and guided by real-time 3D transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE) (i.e.

Midterm results of endovascular treatment of atherosclerotic aneurysms of the descending thoracic aorta.

Objective: We sought to determine the midterm results of endovascular repair of atherosclerotic aneurysms of the thoracic descending aorta by using second-generation, commercially available stent grafts.

Methods: Between 1996 and 2005, 45 patients (mean age, 68 +/- 11 years) with aneurysms of the descending thoracic aorta underwent endovascular repair. Aortic dissections, penetrating ulcers, and traumatisms were excluded.

ApoO, a novel apolipoprotein, is an original glycoprotein up-regulated by diabetes in human heart.

Obesity is an independent risk factor for cardiac failure. Obesity promotes excessive deposition of fat in adipose and nonadipose tissues. Intramyocardial lipid overload is a relatively common finding in nonischemic heart failure, especially in obese and diabetic patients, and promotes lipoapoptosis that contributes to the alteration of cardiac function.

QT dynamicity: a prognostic factor for sudden cardiac death in chronic heart failure.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine whether impaired adaptation of the QT interval to changes in heart rate predicts sudden death in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

Methods: We prospectively included 175 CHF patients in sinus rhythm. QT dynamicity was evaluated by analyzing 24-h Holter recordings.

Assessment of atrial septal defect size with 3D-transesophageal echocardiography: comparison with balloon method.

Background: Transcatheter closure of atrial septal defect (ASD) is an alternative approach to surgery in selected patients. Balloon stretched diameter (BSD) is considered as the standard way of measuring ASD size. Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3D-TEE) provides views of the ASD allowing its measurement and identifying its spatial relation with neighboring structures.

Uncomplicated human obesity is associated with a specific cardiac transcriptome: involvement of the Wnt pathway.

A dramatic increase in obesity prevalence and cardiovascular morbidity is expected for the coming years. However, with relevance to the heart, little is known about the specific contribution of obesity on associated morbidity. Consequently, global analysis of gene regulations in human heart was undertaken to monitor molecular regulations related to obesity or to obesity-related hypertension.

Kinetic analysis of cardiac transcriptome regulation during chronic high-fat diet in dogs.

In the present study, we investigated, using custom dog cDNA arrays, the time course of transcriptional changes in the left ventricle of dogs fed a normal diet or a high-fat diet (HFD) for 9-24 wk. Array hybridizations were performed with complex probes representing mRNAs expressed in left ventricles from obese hypertensive and lean control dogs. We identified 63 differentially expressed genes, and expression of 17 of 20 randomly chosen genes was confirmed by real-time PCR.

[Heart failure with preserved left ventricular function: clinical, echocardiographic, and clinical course features. Prognostic factors].

Heart failure is clinically associated with inadequate myocardial contraction, a significant reduction of left ventricular systolic function and ejection fraction and a cardiac enlargement. Some studies have reported that patients with symptomatic heart failure may have an impaired left ventricular filling with a normal or preserved left ventricular systolic function and an ejection fraction > 45%. These patients have a "diastolic heart failure" often neglected or misdiagnosed.