Thoracic aorta atherosclerosis burden index predicts coronary artery disease in patients undergoing transesophageal echocardiography.

Aims: The severity of thoracic aortic atherosclerosis (TAA) is associated with the extent of coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of this study is to quantitative this relationship by developing a novel atherosclerotic index.

Methods And Results: Two hundred and forty six consecutive patients underwent transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and coronary angiography.

Acute improvement of aortic mechanics following hemodialysis in patients with chronic renal failure.

Background: Evidence suggests that distensibility of the aorta is decreased in patients with end-stage renal failure, while the underlying mechanisms are unclear.

Hypothesis: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the distensibility of the aorta in patients at the end stage of chronic renal failure before and after hemodialysis (HD).

Methods: The diameter of the ascending aorta and distensibility were assessed in 48 patients on HD (31 men, 17 women, aged 45+/-14 years) and in 27 normal subjects (17 men, 10 women, aged 44+/-14 years).

Cardiac hydatid cysts: echocardiographic findings.

Cardiac hydatid disease is rare. Many patients are asymptomatic, hence cardiac involvement is often discovered incidentally. Diagnosis is also difficult because of a long period between parasitic infection and the manifestation of disease.

Echocardiographic and electrocardiographic prognostic factors of heart failure in young patients with beta-thalassemia major: a 10-year (1995--2004) follow-up.

Despite intense iron-chelation therapy, the life expectancy of patients with beta-thalassemia major (beta-TM) is still limited by the occurrence of heart failure. In the present study, we sought to evaluate the prognostic significance of several clinical factors on the outcome of heart failure or arrhythmias in patients with beta-TM. The study group consisted of 131 consecutive young patients with beta-TM (71 men aged 21+/-4 years, 60 women aged 22+/-5 years) who were initially examined during 1995.

Successful thrombolysis of a partially obstructed bileaflet prosthetic heart valve in the mitral position.

We describe the case of a woman who presented with dyspnea of abrupt onset and who had recently undergone replacement of the mitral valve with a bileaflet mechanical prosthesis. Transthoracic echocardiographic examination with spectral Doppler recording of transvalvular blood flow revealed a velocity spectrum consistent with obstruction. Transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated partial obstruction of the prosthetic valve due to immobilization of 1 hemidisc in the closed position.