Prevalence and prognostic impact of electrocardiographic abnormalities in outpatients with extracardiac artery disease.

Identifying cardiac disease in patients with extracardiac artery disease (ECAD) is essential for clinical decision-making. Electrocardiography (ECG) is an easily accessible tool to unmask subclinical cardiac disease and to risk stratify patient with or without manifest cardiovascular disease (CV). We aimed to examine the prevalence and prognostic impact of ECG changes in outpatients with ECAD.

Factor analysis of the individual components of the metabolic syndrome among elderly identifies two factors with different survival patterns--a population-based study.

Background: Factor analysis reduces a set of directly measured variables into a smaller set of underlying factors representing unique statistically independent domains termed "factors." In middle-aged people, previous factor analyses of the components of the metabolic syndrome have identified two to four factors. Many of these analyses report blood pressure as one of these factors.

Waist circumference alone predicts insulin resistance as good as the metabolic syndrome in elderly women.

Background: Insulin resistance (IR) is a risk factor for diabetes and atherosclerotic diseases. The metabolic syndrome (MetS) reflects IR. Waist circumference (WC) is the most easily registered component of MetS.

Heart rate recovery is more strongly associated with the metabolic syndrome, waist circumference, and insulin sensitivity in women than in men among the elderly in the general population.

Background: Low heart rate recovery (HRR) at exercise test and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) are both predictors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We studied in 75-year-old women and men, representative of the general population, the relationship between (1) HRR and the MetS, (2) HRR and the individual components of the MetS, and (3) HRR and insulin sensitivity.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of randomly selected 75-year-olds from a general population was performed (191 women and 194 men).

Echocardiographic Doppler assessments of left ventricular filling and ejection during upright exercise in endurance athletes.

Doppler echocardiography was used to describe left ventricular filling and ejection during upright bicycle exercise in 24 healthy male endurance athletes. The transmitral pressure gradient was estimated and isovolumetric relaxation, filling and ejection time and transmitral and aortic flow velocities were measured at rest and during exercise. From rest to peak exercise (at a heart rate of 160 bpm), the mean left ventricular filling time was shortened by 73%, the ejection time by 31%, while the isovolumetric relaxation time was shortened by 62%.

Mitral annulus motion as a predictor of mortality in a community-based sample of 75-year-old men and women.

Mitral annulus motion (MAM) is a predictor of mortality in selected patient groups, but its prognostic value in less selected populations is not known. In a community-based random sample of 75-year-old men and women (n = 408), left ventricular function was measured as: (1) maximum amplitude of MAM; and (2) wall-motion index. During a median follow-up of 7.

Electrocardiogram and B-type natriuretic peptide as screening tools for left ventricular systolic dysfunction in a population-based sample of 75-year-old men and women.

Background: Plasma concentration of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been suggested as a powerful screening tool for left ventricular systolic dysfunction. However, there are reports indicating that the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) could be just as powerful. We aimed to evaluate the 12-lead ECG and BNP as screening tools for left ventricular systolic dysfunction in an elderly, unselected population.

Mitral annulus motion compared with wall motion scoring index in the assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction.

The biplane disc summation method is the recommended echocardiographic procedure to determine left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF). Assessment of mitral annulus motion (MAM) or wall motion scoring index (WMI) has been reported to be less dependent on image quality compared with the recommended method, and proposed as a surrogate to the disc summation method in calculation of LVEF. We aimed to compare MAM and WMI in the echocardiographic assessment of LVEF.

Factors of Importance to Doppler Indexes of Left Ventricular Filling in 50-Year-Old Hypertensive Persons.

Altered left ventricular (LV) diastolic filling has been shown in subjects with hypertension. Age is a major determinant of Doppler indexes of LV diastolic filling; therefore, a group of subjects of uniform age should preferably be chosen, if other determinants of diastolic LV filling are to be studied. A limited body of data is available regarding Doppler indexes of LV filling in hypertensive persons of a similar age.