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Sci Rep 2021 Apr 12;11(1):7974. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, SW36NP, UK.

Kawasaki disease (KD) can be associated with high morbidity and mortality due to coronary artery aneurysms formation and myocardial dysfunction. Aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of non-invasive myocardial work in predicting subtle myocardial abnormalities in Kawasaki disease (KD) children with coronary dilatation (CADL). A total of 100 patients (age 8. Read More

BMC Cardiovasc Disord 2021 Apr 12;21(1):170. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Rua Napoleão de Barros 800, Vila Clementino, São Paulo, 04024-002, Brazil.

Background: The use of anthracycline-based chemotherapy is associated with the development of heart failure, even years after the end of treatment. Early detection of cardiac dysfunction could identify a high-risk subset of survivors who would eventually benefit from early intervention. Cardiac magnetic resonance feature-tracking (CMR-FT) analysis offers a practical and rapid method to calculate systolic and diastolic strains from routinely acquired cine images. Read More

Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2021 Apr 12. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Objectives: We sought to examine predictors of pulmonary embolism response team (PERT) utilization and identify those who could benefit from advanced therapy.

Background: PERT and advanced therapy use remain low. Current risk stratification tools heavily weight age and comorbidities, which may not always correlate with presentation's severity. Read More

Am J Transl Res 2021 15;13(3):1184-1196. Epub 2021 Mar 15.

Department of Cardiology, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai City, China.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the value of layer-specific strain analysis by two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI) in the assessment of myocardial toxicity in breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline chemotherapy.

Methods: Thirty-four breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline chemotherapy were prospectively enrolled. Conventional echocardiography and 2D-STI were evaluated at baseline after the third and sixth cycles of anthracycline chemotherapy. Read More

Circ J 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Department of Cardiology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences.

Background: It is well acknowledged that left ventricular (LV) contractile performance affects LV relaxation via LV elastic recoil. Accordingly, we aimed to investigate whether global longitudinal strain (GLS), particularly longitudinal strain at LV apical segments at end-systole (ALS), obtained by 2-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography could be used to assess LV relaxation.Methods and Results:We enrolled 121 patients with suspected or definite coronary artery disease in whom echocardiography and diagnostic cardiac catheterization were performed on the same day. Read More

J Echocardiogr 2021 Apr 11. Epub 2021 Apr 11.

Division of Cardiology, Nagano Children's Hospital, 3100, Azumino, Nagano, Japan.

Background: Exercise stress echocardiography has been used to assess myocardial reserve in various heart diseases. This study examined the ventricular myocardial response to exercise in Fontan patients using exercise stress echocardiography.

Methods: Twenty-five Fontan patients and 19 control subjects underwent semi-supine bicycle exercise stress echocardiography in this prospective, single-center, cross-sectional study. Read More

J Am Soc Echocardiogr 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, 2300RC Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address:

Background: Conventional approaches for the assessment of secondary tricuspid regurgitation (STR) severity do not correct for right heart dimensions. We hypothesized that STR severity can be proportional or disproportional to the dilation of the tricuspid annulus (TA) and we investigated the prognostic impact of this novel definition.

Methods: A total of 334 patients with moderate-to-severe STR and preserved left ventricular systolic function were included. Read More

Ann Biomed Eng 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

James T. Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.

Ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) is a prevalent cardiac disease associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Contemporary surgical treatments continue to have limited long-term success, in part due to the complex and multi-factorial nature of IMR. There is thus a need to better understand IMR etiology to guide optimal patient specific treatments. Read More

Echocardiography 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA.

Background: Pericardial effusion drainage in patients with significant pulmonary hypertension (PH) has been questioned because of hemodynamic collapse concern, mainly because of right ventricular (RV) function challenging assessment. We aimed to assess RV function changes related to pericardiocentesis in patients with and without PH.

Methods: Consecutive patients with symptomatic moderate-to-large pericardial effusion who had either echocardiographic or clinical signs of cardiac tamponade and who underwent pericardiocentesis from 2013 to 2018 were included. Read More

Zhonghua Wei Zhong Bing Ji Jiu Yi Xue 2021 Mar;33(3):329-333

Department of Ultrasonography, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, Hubei, China. Corresponding author: Guo Ruiqiang, Email:

Objective: To explore the monitoring value of left ventricular functional parameters obtained by bedside ultrasound combined with clinically relevant indicators in patients with veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO).

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted. A total of 24 patients receiving VA-ECMO adjuvant support in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from June 2018 to January 2020 were selected. Read More

JACC Cardiovasc Imaging 2021 Apr;14(4):782-793

Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, Texas, USA. Electronic address:

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess mitral valve (MV) remodeling and strain in patients with secondary mitral regurgitation (SMR) compared with primary MR (PMR) and normal valves.

Background: A paucity of data exists on MV strain during the cardiac cycle in humans. Real-time 3-dimensional (3D) echocardiography allows for dynamic MV imaging, enabling computerized modeling of MV function in normal and disease states. Read More

Clin Physiol Funct Imaging 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Lund University, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Cardiology, Lund, Sweden.

Aims: Detecting changes in ventricular function after orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is important but interpretation of findings is complicated by lack of data on early graft adaptation. We sought to evaluate echocardiographic measures of ventricular size and function the first year following OHT including speckle tracking derived strain. We also aimed to compare echocardiographic findings to hemodynamic parameters obtained by right heart catheterization (RHC). Read More

J Cardiovasc Echogr 2020 Oct-Dec;30(4):206-210. Epub 2021 Jan 20.

Department of Cardiology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.

The architecture of the myocardial fibers defines the different components of left ventricular (LV) contraction. Subendocardial layers are primarily responsible for longitudinal LV deformation and subepicardial layers for circumferential LV deformation. The specific analysis of the different components of LV deformation by echocardiography might offer new diagnostic options in patients with acute myocarditis (?IM). Read More

Eur J Radiol 2021 Mar 26;139:109679. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

Department of Radiology, Northwestern University, 737 N Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL, 60611, United States.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that cine MRI can be used to characterize features of left and right ventricles in post-capillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) caused by heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Methods: With the approval of institution review board (IRB), 28 consecutive post-capillary PH patients (11 males, 62.1 ± 13. Read More

Adv Biomed Res 2020 28;9:67. Epub 2020 Nov 28.

Department of Cardiology, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Background: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is a key determinant in decision-making after acute myocardial infarction (MI). Little is known of its relationship with left ventricular Strain and N-Terminal fragment of pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptide (NT-pro-BNP) following acute anterior wall MI (AWMI).

Materials And Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of patients with a diagnosis of acute AWMI and the absence of overt heart failure (HF). Read More

Quant Imaging Med Surg 2021 Apr;11(4):1421-1436

Internal Medicine II, Ulm University Medical Center, Ulm, Germany.

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance based tissue tracking (CMR-TT) was reported to provide detailed insight into left ventricular (LV) contractile function and deformation with both of two- and three-dimensional (2/3D) algorithms. This study was designed to investigate the feasibility and reproducibility of these two techniques for measuring LV global and segmental strain, and establish gender- and age-related reference values of global multi-dimensional peak strains among large healthy population.

Methods: We retrospectively recruited 150 healthy volunteers (75 males/females) and divided them into three age groups (G, G and G). Read More

Quant Imaging Med Surg 2021 Apr;11(4):1406-1420

Department of Echocardiography, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Background: Non-invasive left ventricular (LV) pressure-strain loops (PSLs), which are generated by combining LV longitudinal strain with brachial artery blood pressure, provide a novel method of quantifying global and segmental myocardial work (MW) indices with potential advantages over conventional echocardiographic strain data, which suffers from being load-dependent. This method has been recently introduced in echocardiographic software, enhancing the efficiency of MW calculations. This study aimed to evaluate the role of non-invasive MW indices derived from LV PSLs in predicting cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) response. Read More

Quant Imaging Med Surg 2021 Apr;11(4):1271-1283

Department of Rheumatology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, China.

Background: Layer-specific speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) is a noninvasive approach that assesses subclinical left ventricular dysfunction. We aimed to investigate the (I) alteration of layer-specific STE parameters and the dyssynchrony index; and (II) the disease parameters associated with layer-specific STE change in drug-naïve patients with new-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) without cardiac symptoms.

Methods: Thirty-five drug-naïve patients with new-onset SLE and twenty-five healthy controls were enrolled. Read More

Front Physiol 2020 17;11:599507. Epub 2021 Mar 17.

Bristol Medical School: Translational Health Sciences, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

The chronically increased blood pressure characteristic of essential hypertension represents an insidious and cumulative risk for cardiovascular disease. Essential hypertension is a multifactorial condition, with no known specific aetiology but a strong genetic component. The Spontaneously Hypertensive rat (SHR) shares many characteristics of human essential hypertension, and as such is a commonly used experimental model. Read More

Clin Rheumatol 2021 Apr 4. Epub 2021 Apr 4.

Department of Rheumatology, The Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, 010050, China.

Objectives: To compare cardiac function and systolic dyssynchrony of fetuses not exposed to and those exposed to maternal autoimmune antibodies using two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2DSTE).

Methods: An observational study of 52 fetuses, 18 from mothers with autoimmune antibodies (anti-SSA/Ro60, anti-Ro52 or/and anti-SSB/La) and 34 from healthy mothers without antibodies, was conducted. Maternal baseline characteristics, fetoplacental Doppler parameters, and conventional echocardiographic data were prospectively collected. Read More