Objectives: The purpose of this study was to clarify the prognostic significance of diagnosing whether the failing heart is functioning on the descending limb of the Starling curve by using echocardiography with passive leg lifting (PLL).
Background: Patients with advanced heart failure can shift to the descending limb of the Starling curve, in which pre-load does not lead to an expected increase in forward left ventricular stroke volume (LVSV).
Methods: Thirty-five consecutive patients with left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction of <40% underwent echocardiography at rest during baseline and during PLL to increase pre-load.
Results: Despite PLL, a paradoxical decrease in forward LVSV was observed in 15 (43%) patients. Changes in forward LVSV inversely correlated with those in functional mitral regurgitation (r = -0.56). The primary endpoint of cardiac death or hospitalization due to worsening heart failure occurred in 15 (43%) patients during follow-up (2.8 ± 2.2 years). There were a number of significant predictors of the primary endpoint in the univariate Cox analysis: baseline E/A ratio (p = 0.0002), paradoxical decrease in LVSV despite PLL (hazard ratio: 4.44; 95% confidence interval: 1.41 to 14.0; p = 0.011), baseline LV end-systolic volume (p = 0.023), and baseline LV ejection fraction (p = 0.034). In the bivariate Cox analysis, an addition of the paradoxical decrease in LVSV significantly enhanced the predictive power of all other univariate predictors.
Conclusions: Heart failure patients with LV systolic dysfunction on the descending limb of the Starling curve can be recognized by the paradoxical decrease in LVSV despite PLL, and the prognostic predicting power is additive to the other traditional echocardiographic predictors. Also, our results suggest that functional mitral regurgitation is an important reason for the descending limb of the Starling curve, which is clinically recognized as the pre-load-induced decrease in forward LVSV.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcmg.2016.07.010 | DOI Listing |
PLoS Comput Biol
January 2025
Biorobotics Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
This study introduces a novel neuromechanical model employing a detailed spiking neural network to explore the role of axial proprioceptive sensory feedback, namely stretch feedback, in salamander locomotion. Unlike previous studies that often oversimplified the dynamics of the locomotor networks, our model includes detailed simulations of the classes of neurons that are considered responsible for generating movement patterns. The locomotor circuits, modeled as a spiking neural network of adaptive leaky integrate-and-fire neurons, are coupled to a three-dimensional mechanical model of a salamander with realistic physical parameters and simulated muscles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 65-year-old patient was admitted to the Institute with complaints of shortness of breath, palpitation, and limb edema. Comorbidities were type 2 diabetes mellitus, gout, obesity. Echo: left ventricular ejection fraction 22%, left ventricular aneurysm (LVA), floating thrombus 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Kidney J
January 2025
Healthy Aging Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan.
Background: Damage to brain white matter often occurs in individuals with chronic kidney disease, which might be related to their cognitive decline. This study aims to investigate tract-specific white matter damage in patients with end-stage kidney disease by using fixel-based analysis.
Methods: Images of 31 end-stage kidney disease patients and 16 normal controls (aged: 61.
BMJ Case Rep
January 2025
Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
One of the most common congenital cardiac anomalies is It accounts for 4%-6% of all congenital heart defects. A CoA case surviving into adulthood may result in hypertension, weak femoral pulse, limb and bowel ischaemia and heart failure. A man in his early 20s presented with severe lower limb and abdominal pain with long-standing hypertension, refractory to antihypertensives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLung
January 2025
National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Purpose: This study examined the concavity (angle β, central and peripheral concavity) of the descending limb of the maximal expiratory flow-volume (MEFV) curves to reflect various ventilatory defects, including obstructive, restrictive, or mixed patterns.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study collecting spirometry data from a healthcare center and a tertiary hospital between 2017 and 2022, with additional raw flow-volume curve data from primary healthcare institutions in 2023. We analyzed differences in concavity between spirometric patterns.
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