An evaluation of dual source computed tomography used with the de Weert classification to detect vulnerable plaque, using IVUS virtual histology as a standard of reference.

Background: One of the main risk factors for cerebral ischemic events is atherosclerotic disease of the internal carotid artery (ICA). Nowadays, increasing attention is being paid to the relationship between the morphological features of atherosclerotic plaque and the occurrence of stroke. Several studies have demonstrated that the presence of specific vulnerable plaque types, with a large lipid core and thin fibrous cap, can be used as an independent risk predictor of cerebral ischemic events.

Analysis of Soluble Molecular Fibronectin-Fibrin Complexes and EDA-Fibronectin Concentration in Plasma of Patients with Atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis, a chronic vascular disease, leads to molecular events bound with interplaying processes of inflammation and coagulation. In the present study, fibronectin (FN), FN containing extra domain A (EDA-FN), frequency of occurrence, and relative amounts of soluble plasma FN-fibrin complexes were analyzed in 80 plasma samples of patients suspected of coronary artery disease based on clinical evaluation and changes in arteries found by computed tomographic coronary angiography. The study showed that in the plasma of the patients' group with high risk of coronary artery disease EDA-FN concentration was significantly higher (3.

Anomalous origin of the coronary artery from the wrong coronary sinus evaluated with computed tomography: "high-risk" anatomy and its clinical relevance.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess coronary arteries arising from the wrong coronary sinus, including CT-evaluated high-risk anatomic features, clinical symptoms and cardiac events during follow-up.

Methods: A total of 7,115 patients scheduled for 64-slice or dual-source cardiac CT were screened for the presence of isolated anomalous origin of the coronary artery from the wrong coronary sinus.

Results: Anomalous origin of the coronary artery was found in 54 (0.

[The clinical value of computer tomography (CT) of diagnostics of acute thorax pain--a literature review].

Conventional angiography of the coronary arteries is a standard in heart and coronary arteries diagnosis, sufficient to choose a treatment method. The introduction of 64-row multidetector computed tomography improved the imaging of coronary arteries by increasing its spatial and temporal resolution. It has been shown that the potential clinical value of CT angiography, including dual source computed tomography (DSCT), is based particularly on the exclusion of coronary artery disease and is now a recognized clinical indication in patients with equivocal stress test results.

[Dual source computed tomography in analysis of significance and morphology carotid plaques].

One of the most common causes of stroke is carotid atherosclerosis, stroke affects about 60 thousand Polish people each year and about 27% of them die within a year. About 72%-86% are ischemic strokes, whereas intracerebral or subarachnoid haemorrhages account for about 9-18% of strokes. Stroke is the third most common cause of death worldwide, after heart disease and cancer, and the most often cause of chronic disability in people over 40.

Infarct size determines myocardial uptake of CD34+ cells in the peri-infarct zone: results from a study of (99m)Tc-extametazime-labeled cell visualization integrated with cardiac magnetic resonance infarct imaging.

Background: Effective progenitor cell recruitment to the ischemic injury zone is a prerequisite for any potential therapeutic effect. Cell uptake determinants in humans with recent myocardial infarction are not defined. We tested the hypothesis that myocardial uptake of autologous CD34(+) cells delivered via an intracoronary route after recent myocardial infarction is related to left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF) and infarct size.

Osteoprotegerin, but not osteopontin, as a potential predictor of vascular calcification in normotensive subjects.

We conducted a cross-sectional observation study that included 500 asymptomatic subjects to investigate the relationship between bone metabolism and coronary artery calcification (CAC) in hypertensive conditions. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and osteopontin (OPN) levels and their associations with hypertension were analyzed to predict CAC in 316 subjects. Multislice computed tomography was used to quantify CAC.

The composition and extent of coronary artery plaque detected by multislice computed tomographic angiography provides incremental prognostic value in patients with suspected coronary artery disease.

Multislice computed tomographic coronary angiography (CTCA) provides accurate noninvasive assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, data on the prognostic value of CTCA in patients with suspected CAD are only beginning to emerge. The aim of the study was to assess the prognostic value of CTCA in patients with suspected CAD.

Relationship between mitral leaflets angles, left ventricular geometry and mitral deformation indices in patients with ischemic mitral regurgitation: imaging by echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance.

Unlabelled: Chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) is associated with a markedly worse prognosis after myocardial infarction (MI).The study aimed to evaluate the relationship between anterior and posterior mitral leaflet angle (MLA) values, left ventricle remodeling and severity of ischaemic mitral regurgitation (IMR).

Methods: Forty-two patients (age 63.

Extent of RV dysfunction and myocardial infarction assessed by CMR are independent outcome predictors early after STEMI treated with primary angioplasty.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of right ventricular (RV) involvement diagnosed by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) early after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Background: CMR allows accurate and reproducible RV assessment. However, there is a paucity of data regarding the prognostic value of RV involvement detected by CMR early after STEMI.

Resynchronization therapy transvenous approach in dextrocardia and congenitally corrected transposition of great arteries.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an acknowledged treatment for advanced heart failure in acquired dilated cardiomyopathy, resistant to pharmacotherapy. Although there are no therapeutic standards regarding heart failure originating from congenital heart defects with systemic right ventricle, a number of CRT implantations by transvenous approach in congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA) have been reported since 2001, even though none of them expressly referred to a case concomitant with dextrocardia and situs inversus anomaly. We present a 57 year-old patient with dextrocardia and CCTGA, who underwent surgical closure of interatrial and interventricular septal defects at the age of 19, and in whom a VVI pacemaker was subsequently implanted at age 36.

[Use of magnetic resonance in the diagnostics of ischemic heart disease].

The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a diagnostic tool of coronary arteries disease has increased over the last years. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a preferable tool in assessment of ventricular mass and function, presence and size of post infarct scaring and anomalies of coronary arteries. CMR becomes also a useful method in evaluation of myocardial viability.

[Assessment of coronary artery stents in computed tomography: state of the art].

Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) with stent implantation play an important role in the revascularization therapy of coronary artery disease. Introduction of drug eluting stents (DES) diminished problem of restenosis but brought several new major problems like i.e.

Delayed perforation of the right ventricle as a complication of permanent cardiac pacing - is following the guidelines always the right choice? Non-standard treatment - a case report and literature review.

A case of a delayed perforation of the right ventricle by the pacemaker lead in a 67-year-old woman is presented. Perforation, mimicking stenocardial symptoms, was incidentally diagnosed on a computed tomography chest scan. Percutaneous lead extraction was successfully performed, with simultaneous implantation of a new pacemaker lead.

[Type IV dual left anterior descending coronary artery - a rare congenital coronary artery anomaly. A case report].

An extremely rare case of type IV dual left anterior descending coronary artery coexisting with myocardial bridging in a 50-year old Caucasian man with acute coronary syndrome is presented. Emergency cardiac catheterisation revealed no coronary atherosclerotic lesions. The potential causal relationship between the type IV dual left anterior descending coronary artery and myocardial ischaemia was discussed.

Comparison of magnetic resonance feature tracking for strain calculation with harmonic phase imaging analysis.

Objectives: To compare a steady-state free precession cine sequence-based technique (feature tracking [FT]) to tagged harmonic phase (HARP) analysis for peak average circumferential myocardial strain (epsilon(cc)) analysis in a large and heterogeneous population of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Background: Current epsilon(cc) assessment techniques require cardiac magnetic resonance-tagged imaging sequences, and their analysis is complex. The FT method can readily be performed on standard cine (steady-state free precession) sequences.

Late gadolinium enhancement in cardiovascular magnetic resonance in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy complicated by life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmia.

Background: Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has been shown to be associated with ventricular arrhythmias, however, its prognostic role in predicting sudden cardiac death has not yet been established.

Aim: To explore a potential relationship between LGE visualised by CMR and life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmia in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

Methods: The LGE in CMR was assessed in 55 HCM patients.

Myocardial perfusion in hypertensive patients with normal coronary angiograms.

Background: Pressure-induced left ventricular hypertrophy is one of the mechanisms responsible for an impaired coronary vasodilating capacity leading to myocardial ischemia and angina. The aim of the study was to investigate myocardial perfusion using cardiovascular magnetic resonance in patients with arterial hypertension and a history of chest pain and normal coronary angiography, and to estimate the influence of left ventricular hypertrophy on the parameters of myocardial perfusion.

Methods: The study included 102 patients (mean age 55.

[Cardiac syncope in children].

Introduction: Syncope are serious problems in paediatrics. Approximately 15% of children and adolescents at the age of 8-18 years experience at least one episode of syncope. Neurocardiogenic syncope are the most common (60-80%).

[Visualisation of early engraftment of transcoronary applied CD34+ cells in the infarct border zone].

Successful delivery of progenitor cells to the injury zone is a prerequisite for any effect of myocardial regeneration therapy. This key issue, however, has received far less attention than, for instance, a potential need for cell type selection or ex-vivo expansion, the optimal timing of cell application or multimodal functional evaluation after cellular transplantation. By combining myocardial perfusion scintigraphy, magnetic resonance imaging and 99Tc-HMPAO-labelled autologous bone marrow-derived CD34+ cells visualisation, we show in a 63-year-old man with a large anterior myocardial infarction that transcoronary applied cells (via the central lumen of an inflated over-the-wire balloon positioned in the stent implanted in primary PCI) graft preferentially to the infarct border zone.

[Influence of microinflammation and oxidative stress on atherosclerosis progression and calcifications in cardiovascular system of hemodialyzed patients during two years follow-up].

Atherosclerosis and calcifications in the cardio-vascular system are the most frequent causes of increased morbidity and mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease treated with hemodialyses. The aim of this study was to estimate the atherosclerosis progression and presence of calcifications in the circulatory system in patients treated with hemodialyses using, non-invasive imaging diagnostic techniques and to search for the relationships between these changes and microinflammation and oxidative stress during two years. The study was performed in 73 patients (36 female and 37 male), aged 25 to 75 years (mean -49.

Late hyperenhancement in gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging: comparison of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients with and without nonsustained ventricular tachycardia.

Aim: To assess the extent of hyperenhancement in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients with nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) in comparison to patients without NSVT.

Design: In HCM patients, NSVT in Holter monitoring is a risk factor for sudden cardiac death; however, its positive predictive value is low. Varying risk of sudden death related to NSVT may be dependent on the heterogeneous extent of the arrhythmogenic substrate, which seems to be visible as hyperenhancement in gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Physical training in patients with chronic heart failure of ischemic origin: effect on exercise capacity and left ventricular remodeling.

Background: Physical training is a well-known complementary treatment for chronic heart failure (CHF); however, many aspects require further studies. One of them is the impact on remodeling of the left ventricle (LV). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 6 months of training on LV, exercise capacity and safety issues in patients with ischemic CHF.