Different patterns of left ventricular enlargement and long-term prognosis after reperfused acute myocardial infarction.

Background: Dilation of end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes (ESV, EDV) has been used to define left ventricular remodelling after acute myocardial infarction (MI), but the prognostic significance of different enlargement patterns has not been evaluated fully.

Aim: To analyse the evolution of left ventricular volumes and parameters of global and regional contractility and their correlations with long-term prognosis in patients treated by angioplasty in the acute phase of MI.

Methods: Seventy-four patients (mean age 56+/-13 years; 77% men), treated successfully by angioplasty in the acute phase of MI, were included prospectively.

Effect of thrombus aspiration on infarct size and left ventricular function in high-risk patients with acute myocardial infarction treated by percutaneous coronary intervention. Results of a prospective controlled pilot study.

Background: Thrombus aspiration devices have been shown to improve reperfusion criteria and to reduce distal embolization in patients treated by percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in the acute phase of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). There are, however, little data about their efficacy in the reduction of infarct size.

Methods: We sought to assess in a prospective randomized trial the impact of thrombus aspiration on infarct size and severity and on left ventricular function in high-risk patients with a first STEMI.

Assessment of left ventricular volumes and function by cine-MR imaging depending on the investigator's experience.

Aims: To analyze the reproducibility of LV volumes calculated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) and to compare them to those obtained by conventional ventriculography.

Methods: A total of 30 patients with stable ischemic heart disease were prospectively included. Each underwent CMRI twice and ventriculography.

A Real-Time Continuous Cardiac Arrhythmias Detection System: RECAD.

Cardiac arrhythmia is a class of serious heart diseases that threatens many people. Current arrhythmias diagnostic techniques seem to be partially efficient due to the application limitations either in time or in space. The paper presents a real-time continuous arrhythmias detection system (RECAD) platform based on the wireless sensor network technology.

[Transient left ventricular apical ballooning or the tako-tsubo syndrome].

Recently, Japanese authors have described a new clinical entity associating apical akidyskinesia and basal hyperkinesias without significant coronary artery disease under the name of the tako-tsubo syndrome. This syndrome is usually observed in elderly women and the clinical presentation is usually that of an acute coronary syndrome. The authors report 10 cases of patients investigated between June 2003 and August 2004.

Remote continuous cardiac arrhythmias detection and monitoring.

The current techniques used to diagnose cardiac arrhythmias such as Holter, Rtest and telemetry systems are partially efficient because they are limited either in time or in space. In this paper, a platform dedicated to the real-time remote continuous cardiac arrhythmias detection and monitoring is proposed. Such a platform allows to improve the accuracy and the efficiency of the diagnostic of ventricular tachycardia among the high-risk patients and enables the implantation of ICD to prevent sudden death.

Influence of infarct-zone viability detected by rest Tc-99m sestamibi gated SPECT on left ventricular remodeling after acute myocardial infarction treated by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in the acute phase.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the value of technetium 99m sestamibi gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in predicting the evolution of left ventricular volumes in patients treated successfully in the acute phase of a myocardial infarction (MI).

Methods And Results: Twenty-nine patients with acute MI and early percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) were included in this study. A rest Tc-99m sestamibi electrocardiography (ECG)-gated SPECT study was performed 21 +/- 5 days after PTCA.

[Prevalence of renal artery stenosis in patients undergoing cardiac catheterization: when should abdominal aortography be performed? Results in 467 patients].

Purpose: To define a subgroup of patients at increased risk of renal artery stenosis (RAS) in a population of patients undergoing cardiac catheterization.

Materials And Methods: A total of 467 patients (mean age of 64 Years +/-11) underwent cardiac catheterization and aortography Results were evaluated to detect correlations between the presence or absence of RAS and clinical and biological parameters.

Results: A total of 42 (9%) patients had a renal artery stenosis.

[MRI and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD). Retrospective evaluation of 50 patients].

Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the contribution of MRI to the diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD).

Patients And Methods: Thirty two men and 18 women (mean age: 48.7 years) were imaged using gated spin echo scans and short axis cine MR.

Transluminal angioplasty in a patient with a single coronary artery during the acute phase of a myocardial infarction.

The prevalence of coronary artery abnormalities, in particular the single vessel form, is low among the general population. We report a case of a transluminal angioplasty of the left anterior descending artery arising from the right coronary artery during the acute phase of myocardial infarction.

Preliminary evaluation of a fuzzy logic-based automatic quantitative analysis in myocardial SPECT.

Unlabelled: This study validates a new quantitative myocardial perfusion SPECT software.

Methods: The processing starts with the extraction of the morphologic skeleton of the left ventricular myocardium from reconstructed transverse sections. Fuzzy logic is used to decide whether a pixel belongs to the myocardium and any perfusion defect is filled according to a truncated bullet model.

Two enlarged kidneys: a manifestation of Erdheim-Chester disease.

Erdheim-Chester disease is a rare form of non-Langerhans' cell histiocytosis. This disorder is characterized by a bone involvement and several extraskeletal manifestations. We describe the case of a patient with a pleural and pericardial effusion leading to tamponade.

[Cross-sectional imaging of post endocarditis paravalvular myocardial abscesses of native mitral valves: 4 cases].

Four cases of submitral myocardial abscess imaged by CT or MRI following endocarditis are described. All cases occurred in fragile patients (diabetes mellitus, dialysis, severe cardiovascular diseases). An iatrogenic source was noted in one patient.

Pleural and pericardial effusion as the first sign of multiple myeloma.

We report a case of IgA-kappa multiple myeloma in a 68-year-old woman that was revealed by concomitant pleural and pericardial effusion. These effusions were found to be caused by myeloma and were verified by cytological examination of the pleural fluid and pericardial biopsy. The patient had neither osteolytic lesions nor Bence-Jones proteinuria.

Comparable uptake of thallium-201 and technetium-99m MIBI in hibernating and "maimed" myocardium.

Thallium-201 and technetium-99m-MIBI uptake are comparable in "maimed" (i.e., partially viable) and hibernating myocardium.

[Changes in the high-amplification electrocardiogram after myocardial revascularization. Comparison between coronary artery bypass and angioplasty].

The signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SA-ECG) was studied in 148 patients undergoing myocardial revascularisation either by coronary bypass surgery (CBS) (64 cases) or transluminal angioplasty (PTCA) (84 cases). The investigation was performed before the procedure, at day 7 (D7) and after 3 months (D120). No difference was observed in the SA-ECG between the two groups before revascularisation.

[Identification of hibernating myocardium using 99m sestamibi tomoscintigraphy at rest].

The aim of this study was to assess the value of resting 99m Tc-Sestamibi scintigraphy for the detection of hibernating myocardium in zones of contractile dysfunction. Based on a series of 25 patients, 27 segments of supposedly hibernating myocardium were identified. All these segments corresponded to left ventricular wall motion abnormalities confirmed by contrast angiography and were perfused by a stenosed coronary artery: none of these zones were infarcted.

Rest technetium 99m-sestamibi tomoscintigraphy in hibernating myocardium.

The myocardial uptake of rest-injected technetium 99m sestamibi on single-photon-emission computed tomographic images was assessed in 25 patients. All had an area of myocardial dysfunction that could be related to a coronary artery stenosis. None of the patients had clinical evidence of a myocardial infarction.

Efficacy and safety of the 200-300 mg sustained release formulation of diltiazem administered once daily in patients with stable angina.

The aim of this multicentre randomised double blind study was to compare the efficacy and safety of the 200-300 mg sustained release diltiazem formulation administered once daily (200-300 SR) with standard diltiazem (D) given three or four times daily to patients with stable angina. Patients aged 59 years, with a reproducible exercise test on placebo, were randomised to 4 weeks of treatment with 200-300 SR (n = 70) or D (n = 74). The initial dosage was 200 mg in the 200-300 SR group and 60 mg t.

Reinjection as an alternative to rest imaging for detection of exercise-induced ischemia with thallium-201 emission tomography.

Exercise thallium-201 single photon emission computed tomography images were compared prospectively with 4-hour redistribution images, with 4-hour reinjection images, and with images obtained at rest on a separate day in 37 patients with documented coronary artery disease. Exercise images were abnormal in 35 patients (95%). On the basis of an improvement in thallium-201 distribution between exercise and nonexercise images, overall sensitivity for the detection of coronary artery stenosis was significantly higher with reinjection at 4 hours (p < 0.