G P Aurigemma

..The purpose of this study was to compare invasive with noninvasive indices of diastolic function in a well-defined group of patients with diastolic dysfunction and a history of diastolic heart failure...

..It has been hypothesized that the level of end-systolic wall stress (sigma(m)) is a feedback signal that regulates the level of hypertrophy. Thus, low levels of sigma(m) may signify inappropriate hypertrophy...

..This article reviews clinical aspects of the syndrome, its recognition by echocardiography, and will review other disorders whose recognition is due primarily to the availability of echocardiography...

..We sought to assess the ability of echocardiographic indices of systolic and diastolic function to predict incident congestive heart failure (CHF)...

..Improvement in midwall shortening is more closely related to normalization of LV geometry than to reduction in LV mass...

..Accordingly, our aim was to study the relationship between prior treatment and both baseline and 1-year echocardiographic LV mass in subjects enrolled in the Losartan Intervention For Endpoint reduction (LIFE) study...

..Velocity parameters did not provide incremental information beyond that obtained by extent of shortening parameters...

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..Aortic root diameter, relative wall thickness, heart rate, heart rhythm, cardiac output, presence or severity of coronary artery disease, and time interval between studies were not predictors of discrepant results...

..This article reviews the current state of knowledge regarding the prognosis of patient populations with diastolic dysfunction and diastolic heart failure...

..In conclusion, almost 1/3 of patients hospitalized with diastolic HF had systolic dysfunction, characterized by abnormal midwall stress-shortening relations...

..LA size is associated with the new development of HF. These findings highlight the important role of the left atrium in HF, with or without a decreased ejection fraction...

..However, there are few data regarding the costs of HF with normal EF. In a prospective, population-based cohort of elderly participants, we compared the costs and resource use of patients with HF and normal and reduced EF...

..Hence, heart failure in POH is more closely related to deleterious LV remodeling than to depressed myocardial function...

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..Patient selection, often restricted to those with ideal image quality, and timing of studies in relation to reference methods may limit clinical applicability of cardiac volumes derived from 3D echocardiography...

..CONCLUSIONS: Patients with DHF had normal LV systolic performance, function, and contractility. The pathophysiology of DHF does not appear to be related to significant abnormalities in these systolic properties of the LV...

..Asymptomatic patients with aortic regurgitation and mitral regurgitation should undergo surgery if they have systolic dysfunction or marked ventricular enlargement...

..63) and improved when patients with liver or pulmonary disease were excluded (r = 0.83). In conclusion, PASP strongly correlated with PAWP, and this principle can be exploited to rapidly detect patients with low or high PAWP...

..It is likely that the widespread use of echocardiography, coupled with increased recognition of this syndrome, will result in this diagnosis being made more commonly...

..Most persons with congestive heart failure are elderly, and many elderly persons with congestive heart failure have normal left ventricular systolic function...

..LV systolic midwall shortening (MWS) may be impaired in hypertensive patients with normal LV ejection fraction. However, it is unclear whether impaired LV filling is related to depressed systolic midwall mechanics...

..We have shown that hypertensive patients with left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy have decreased LV midwall mechanics, but the effect of antihypertensive therapy remains unclear...

..The mechanism of the paradoxical increase in BNP is not entirely clear, but it may conceivably be a result of counterregulatory hormone release caused by acute decrease in blood pressure...

..Approximately three-fourths of the oldest patients were women, and two-thirds of women had a left ventricular ejection fraction >or=50%...

..In a prospective, longitudinal cohort of community-dwelling elderly from 4 regions, we examined the long-term costs and resource use of elderly patients with HF...