Post-Coital Acute Rupture of a Fenestrated Aortic Valve.

Fenestrated aortic valve is a frequent condition which is, for most of the time, asymptomatic and generally has no influence on aortic valve competence. However, aortic valve regurgitation could occur, especially in the case of fibrous strand rupture. In this situation, acute aortic regurgitation is poorly tolerated and requires urgent surgical correction.

Impact of bileaflet mitral valve prolapse on quantification of mitral regurgitation with cardiac magnetic resonance: a single-center study.

Background: To quantify mitral regurgitation (MR) with CMR, the regurgitant volume can be calculated as the difference between the left ventricular (LV) stroke volume (SV) measured with the Simpson's method and the reference SV, i.e. the right ventricular SV (RVSV) in patients without tricuspid regurgitation.

[Multidisciplinary cardiogenetic counselling].

Multidisciplinary cardiogenetic consulting offers a global clinical approach to patients suffering from channelopathies or hereditary cardiomyopathies. Mutation is discovered in around 50 % of the cases. Several experts are working together to bring probands and their families useful and necessary informations to help them understanding causes, consequences and support of their disease.

[Approach to chronic mitral regurgitation in 2016].

Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most frequent valvular disease in industrialised countries. MR is classified as primary (mostly degenerative with valve prolapse) or secondary (mainly due to underlying ischemic heart disease resulting in deformation of the valve structure). Surgical repair represents the optimal treatment for severe primary MR, whereas the benefits of surgical correction of secondary MR are controversial.

Urgent reoperative transapical valve-in-valve shortly after a transapical aortic valve implantation.

Urgent reoperative transapical aortic valve-in-valve has never been proposed as a treatment option in case of a failed transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) or in case of worsening of an existing paravalvular leak, if this complication occurs right after, or a few days after, the primary transapical aortic valve implantation. Experienced surgeons should argue that after a transapical TAVI, the apex is damaged and fragile, with a high risk of irreparable ventricular tears and life-threatening bleeding if a second transapical procedure is scheduled during the acute phase. Nevertheless, if the patient is inoperable and the vascular status, including the ascending aorta, limits alternative accesses, the urgent reoperative transapical valve-in-valve becomes an alternative.

[Cardiac magnetic resonance in acute myocarditis: a new non-invasive diagnostic gold standard?].

Acute myocarditis was until recently one of the most difficult diagnoses in cardiology. The spectrum of signs and symptoms is very wide, the usual non-invasive tests lack specificity and the myocardial biopsy is only performed in a minority of cases to confirm the diagnosis. Due to its unique ability to directly image myocardial necrosis, fibrosis and oedema, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is now considered the primary tool for noninvasive assessment of patients with suspected myocarditis.

Reduced atrial emptying after orthotopic heart transplantation masquerading as restrictive transmitral Doppler flow pattern?*.

Background: An elevated early (E) to late (A) diastolic filling velocities ratio, typically seen in advanced diastolic dysfunction, has also been observed after cardioversion of atrial fibrillation as a consequence of the depressed left atrial (LA) contractility. We hypothesized that the impaired LA contractile function demonstrated after orthotopic cardiac transplantation (OCT) could also lead to this "pseudorestrictive" pattern.

Method: E/A ratio related to the tissue Doppler early mitral annular velocity (Ea) as preload-independent index of LV relaxation was evaluated in all consecutive OCT patients between 2005 and 2007.

Rapid detection of genetic variants in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by custom DNA resequencing array in clinical practice.

Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited cardiac disease (1/500) and the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young people. Pathogenic mutation detection of HCM is having a growing impact on the medical management of patients and their families. However, the remarkable genetic and allelic heterogeneity makes molecular analysis by conventional methods very time-consuming, expensive and difficult to realise in a routine diagnostic molecular laboratory.

[Cardiomyopathy and cardiac magnetic resonance].

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is a rapidly emerging non-invasive imaging technique free of X-Ray and offers higher spatial resolution than alternative forms of cardiac imaging for the assessment of left ventricular (LV) anatomy, function, and viability due to the unique capability of myocardial tissue characterization after gadolinium-chelates contrast administration. This imaging technique has clinical utility over a broad spectrum of heart diseases: ranging from ischaemic to non ischaemic aetiologies. Cardiomyopathies (CMP) are a heterogeneous group of diseases of the myocardium associated with architectural abnormalities and mechanical dysfunction.

Aortic remodelling in Fabry disease.

Aims: To evaluate thoracic aortic dilation in patients with Fabry disease (FD).

Methods And Results: A cohort of 106 patients with FD (52 males; 54 females) from three European centres were studied. The diameter of the thoracic aorta was assessed at three levels (sinus of Valsalva, ascending aorta, and descending aorta) using echocardiograms and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging.

Effects of an aging vascular model on healthy and diseased hearts.

The vitamin D(3) and nicotine (VDN) model is a model of isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) due to arterial calcification raising arterial stiffness and vascular impedance similar to an aged and stiffened arterial tree. We therefore analyzed the impact of this aging model on normal and diseased hearts with myocardial infarction (MI). Wistar rats were treated with VDN (n = 9), subjected to MI by coronary ligation (n = 10), or subjected to a combination of both MI and VDN treatment (VDN/MI, n = 14).

The effect of a myocardial infarction on the normalized time-varying elastance curve.

It has been suggested that the shape of the normalized time-varying elastance curve [E(n)(t(n))] is conserved in different cardiac pathologies. We hypothesize, however, that the E(n)(t(n)) differs quantitatively after myocardial infarction (MI). Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 9) were anesthetized, and the left anterior descending coronary artery was ligated to provoke the MI.

Increased carotid intima-media thickness in the absence of atherosclerotic plaques in an adult population with Fabry disease.

Aim: Fabry disease is considered primarily as a progressive small vessel disease, with ischaemic degenerative lesions involving the kidneys, brain and heart. Macrovascular involvement in male patients includes an accelerated wall hypertrophy of the radial artery and a thickening of the intima-media of the common carotid artery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and severity of carotid artery atherosclerosis in hemizygous and heterozygous patients with Fabry disease, compared with a matched control population.

Ventricular-arterial coupling in a rat model of reduced arterial compliance provoked by hypervitaminosis D and nicotine.

The vitamin D(3) and nicotine (VDN) model is one of isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) in which arterial calcification raises arterial stiffness and vascular impedance. The effects of VDN treatment on arterial and cardiac hemodynamics have been investigated; however, a complete analysis of ventricular-arterial interaction is lacking. Wistar rats were treated with VDN (VDN group, n = 9), and a control group (n = 10) was included without the VDN.

Cardiac and vascular hypertrophy in Fabry disease: evidence for a new mechanism independent of blood pressure and glycosphingolipid deposition.

Objective: Fabry disease is an X-linked disorder resulting from alpha-galactosidase A deficiency. The cardiovascular findings include left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and increased intima-media thickness of the common carotid artery (CCA IMT). The current study examined the possible correlation between these parameters.

Noninvasive Doppler-derived myocardial performance index in rats with myocardial infarction: validation and correlation by conductance catheter.

The rodent model of myocardial infarction (MI) is extensively used in heart failure studies. However, long-term follow-up of echocardiographic left ventricular (LV) function parameters such as the myocardial performance index (MPI) and its ratio with the fractional shortening (LVFS/MPI) has not been validated in conjunction with invasive indexes, such as those derived from the conductance catheter (CC). Sprague-Dawley rats with left anterior descending coronary artery ligation (MI group, n = 9) were compared with a sham-operated control group (n = 10) without MI.

Interobserver and intraobserver variability in detection of patent foramen ovale and atrial septal aneurysm with transesophageal echocardiography.

Background: An accurate diagnosis of patent foramen ovale (PFO) and atrial septal aneurysm (ASA) may be of decisional importance in the management of patients with ischemic stroke. Very few studies have been devoted to observer agreement in the diagnosis of these atrial septum abnormalities using contrast transesophageal echocardiography, which is considered as the method of choice for the diagnosis. The aim of this study was to assess interobserver and intraobserver variability in the diagnosis of PFO and ASA with contrast echocardiography.