Articles

The new clinical standard of integrated quadruple stress echocardiography with ABCD protocol

The detection of regional wall motion abnormalities is the cornerstone of stress echocardiography. Today, stress echo shows increasing trends of utilization due to growing concerns for radiation risk, higher c...

Authors: Eugenio Picano, Quirino Ciampi, Karina Wierzbowska-Drabik, Mădălina-Loredana Urluescu, Doralisa Morrone and Clara Carpeggiani

Layer-specific strain analysis in patients with suspected stable angina pectoris and apparently normal left ventricular wall motion

Non-invasive imaging tests are widely used in the evaluation of stable angina pectoris (SAP). Despite these tests, non-significant coronary lesions are not a rare finding in patients undergoing elective corona...

Authors: Mustafa Adem Yılmaztepe and Fatih Mehmet Uçar

Relation of arterial stiffness to left ventricular structure and function in healthy women

Interactions between the left ventricular (LV) and the arterial system, (ventricular-arterial coupling) are key determinants of cardiovascular function. However, most of studies covered multiple cardiovascular...

Authors: Jing Zhang, Philip J. Chowienczyk, Tim D. Spector and Benyu Jiang

Quality control of B-lines analysis in stress Echo 2020

The effectiveness trial “Stress echo (SE) 2020” evaluates novel applications of SE in and beyond coronary artery disease. The core protocol also includes 4-site simplified scan of B-lines by lung ultrasound, u...

Authors: Maria Chiara Scali, Quirino Ciampi, Eugenio Picano, Eduardo Bossone, Francesco Ferrara, Rodolfo Citro, Paolo Colonna, Marco Fabio Costantino, Lauro Cortigiani, Antonello D’. Andrea, Sergio Severino, Claudio Dodi, Nicola Gaibazzi, Maurizio Galderisi, Andrea Barbieri, Ines Monte…

Left atrium remodeling predicts late recurrence of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation after second generation cryoballoon ablation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia worldwide. Nowadays, AF ablation is a valuable treatment option. It has been shown that the left atrium (LA) diameter is a predictor of AF recurrence afte...

Authors: Andreea Motoc, Juan-Pablo Abugattas, Bram Roosens, Esther Scheirlynck, Benedicte Heyndrickx, Carlo de Asmundis, Gian-Battista Chierchia, Steven Droogmans and Bernard Cosyns

Comparison of non-triggered magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography for the assessment of left atrial volume and morphology

Advanced atrial fibrillation (AF) patients have persistent AF, failed previous catheter ablation and/or an enlarged left atrium (LA), which is associated with a reduced success of AF ablation. Transthoracic ec...

Authors: Nicoline W. E. van den Berg, Dean R. P. P. Chan Pin Yin, Wouter R. Berger, Jolien Neefs, Rianne H. A. C. M. De Bruin-Bon, Henk A. Marquering, Annelie Slaar, R. Nils Planken and Joris R. de Groot

Comprehensive assessment of left ventricular myocardial function by two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography

Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) results from the combined action of longitudinal and circumferential contraction, radial thickening, and basal and apical rotation. The study of these parameters toget...

Authors: Vicente Mora, Ildefonso Roldán, Elena Romero, Diana Romero, Javier Bertolín, Natalia Ugalde, Carmen Pérez-Olivares, Melisa Rodriguez-Israel, Jana Pérez-Gozalbo and Jorge A. Lowenstein

Reproducibility of Transcranial Doppler ultrasound in the middle cerebral artery

Transcranial Doppler ultrasound remains the only imaging modality that is capable of real-time measurements of blood flow velocity and microembolic signals in the cerebral circulation. We here assessed the rep...

Authors: Jakub Kaczynski, Rachel Home, Karen Shields, Matthew Walters, William Whiteley, Joanna Wardlaw and David E. Newby

When to incorporate point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) into the initial assessment of acutely ill patients: a pilot crossover study to compare 2 POCUS-assisted simulation protocols

The purpose of this study was to determine the ideal timing for providers to perform point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) with the least increase in workload.

Authors: Courtney E. Bennett, Sandhya Samavedam, Namita Jayaprakash, Alexander Kogan, Ognjen Gajic and Hiroshi Sekiguchi

Quantitative analysis of mitral valve morphology in atrial functional mitral regurgitation using real-time 3-dimensional echocardiography atrial functional mitral regurgitation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) can result in atrial functional mitral regurgitation (MR), but the mechanism remains controversial. Few data about the relationship between the 3-dimensional morphology of the MV and t...

Authors: Tao Cong, Jinping Gu, Alex Pui-Wai Lee, Zhijuan Shang, Yinghui Sun, Qiaobing Sun, Hong Wei, Na Chen, Siyao Sun and Tingting Fu

Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion and central venous pressure in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients

The tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) is commonly recommended for estimating the right ventricular systolic function. The central venous pressure (CVP), which is determined by venous return an...

Authors: Hongmin Zhang, Xiaoting Wang, Xiukai Chen, Qing Zhang and Dawei Liu

Prospective assessment of cardiovascular risk parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

The study presents a prospective follow-up assessment of cardiovascular (CV) risk parameters in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in comparison with control subjects.

Authors: Bożena Targońska-Stępniak, Mariusz Piotrowski, Robert Zwolak, Anna Drelich-Zbroja and Maria Majdan

Feasibility of basic transesophageal echocardiography in hemorrhagic shock: potential applications during resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA)

There are numerous studies in the cardiovascular literature that have employed transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in swine models, but data regarding the use of basic TEE in swine models is limited. The pr...

Authors: William A. Teeter, Bianca M. Conti, Phil J. Wasicek, Jonathan J. Morrison, Dawn Parsell, Bryan Gamble, Melanie R. Hoehn, Thomas M. Scalea and Samuel M. Galvagno Jr

Evaluation of a commercial multi-dimensional echocardiography technique for ventricular volumetry in small animals

The assessment of ventricular volumes using conventional echocardiography methods is limited with regards to the need of geometrical assumptions. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate a novel commercial s...

Authors: Jana Grune, Annelie Blumrich, Sarah Brix, Sarah Jeuthe, Cathleen Drescher, Tilman Grune, Anna Foryst-Ludwig, Daniel Messroghli, Wolfgang M. Kuebler, Christiane Ott and Ulrich Kintscher

Are aortic coarctation and rheumatoid arthritis different models of aortic stiffness? Data from an echocardiographic study

Patients who underwent a successful repair of the aortic coarctation (CoA) show high risk for cardiovascular (CV) events. Mechanical and structural abnormalities in the ascending aorta (Ao) might have a role i...

Authors: Giorgio Faganello, Giovanni Cioffi, Maurizio Rossini, Federica Ognibeni, Alessandro Giollo, Maurizio Fisicaro, Giulia Russo, Concetta Di Nora, Sara Doimo, Luigi Tarantini, Carmine Mazzone, Antonella Cherubini, Biancamaria D’Agata Mottolesi, Claudio Pandullo, Andrea Di Lenarda, Gianfranco Sinagra…

Increased aortic intima-media thickness may be used to detect macrovascular complications in adult type II diabetes mellitus patients

Carotid intima media thickness (C-IMT) and aortic IMT (A-IMT) increase in adult and pediatric patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), respectively. In both age groups IMT is used for early detection of macrovasc...

Authors: Ayse Selcan Koc and Hilmi Erdem Sumbul

Echocardiographic characteristics of primary malignant pericardial mesothelioma and outcomes analysis: a retrospective study

Little is known about the echocardiographic characteristics of primary malignant pericardial mesothelioma (PPM) due to its rarity. The aim of this study was to explore the sex-specific echocardiographic patter...

Authors: Lingyun Kong, Ziwang Li, Jingrui Wang and Xiuzhang Lv

How I do it: feasibility of a new ultrasound probe fixator to facilitate high quality stress echocardiography

Stress echocardiography (SE) has recently regained momentum as an important diagnostic tool for the assessment of both ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease. Performing SE during physical exercise is challen...

Authors: O. A. E. Salden, W. M. van Everdingen, R. Spee, P. A. Doevendans and M. J. Cramer

Post-operative left atrial volume index is a predictor of the occurrence of permanent atrial fibrillation after mitral valve surgery in patients who undergo mitral valve surgery

Atrial fibrillation (AF) can occur even after the correction of mitral valve (MV) pathology in patients who have pre-operative sinus rhythm and undergo MV surgery. However, the factors associated with the occu...

Authors: Min-Kyung Kang, Boyoung Joung, Chi Young Shim, In Jeong Cho, Woo-In Yang, Jeonggeun Moon, Yangsoo Jang, Namsik Chung, Byung-Chul Chang and Jong-Won Ha

Cardiac fluid dynamics meets deformation imaging

Cardiac function is about creating and sustaining blood in motion. This is achieved through a proper sequence of myocardial deformation whose final goal is that of creating flow. Deformation imaging provided v...

Authors: Matteo Dal Ferro, Davide Stolfo, Valerio De Paris, Pierluigi Lesizza, Renata Korcova, Dario Collia, Giovanni Tonti, Gianfranco Sinagra and Gianni Pedrizzetti

Equivocal tests after contrast stress-echocardiography compared with invasive coronary angiography or with CT angiography: CT calcium score in mildly positive tests may spare unnecessary coronary angiograms

Imaging stress tests are not ideally accurate to predict anatomically obstructive CAD, leading to a non-trivial rate of unnecessary iCA. This may depend on the threshold used to indicate iCA, and maybe CTA or,...

Authors: Nicola Gaibazzi, Guido Pastorini, Andrea Biagi, Francesco Tafuni, Claudia Buffa, Silvia Garibaldi, Francesca Boffetti and Giorgio Benatti

Realization of fully automated quantification of left ventricular volumes and systolic function using transthoracic 3D echocardiography

Study on automated three-dimensional (3D) quantification of left heart parameters by using Heartmodel software is still in the early stage and fully automatic analysis was not clearly achieved. The aim of our ...

Authors: Lina Sun, Haiyan Feng, Lujia Ni, Hui Wang and Dongmei Gao

3D vena contracta area after MitraClip© procedure: precise quantification of residual mitral regurgitation and identification of prognostic information

Percutaneous mitral valve repair (PMVR) is increasingly performed in patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR). Post-procedural MR grading is challenging and an unsettled issue. We hypothesised that the d...

Authors: Alexander Dietl, Christine Prieschenk, Franziska Eckert, Christoph Birner, Andreas Luchner, Lars S. Maier and Stefan Buchner

Energetic performance analysis of staged palliative surgery in tricuspid atresia using vector flow mapping

Staged palliative surgery markedly shifts the balance of volume load on a single ventricle and pulmonary vascular bed. Blalock-Taussig shunt necessitates a single ventricle eject blood to both the systemic and...

Authors: Mao Kinoshita, Koichi Akiyama, Keiichi Itatani, Ayahiro Yamashita, Maki Ishii, Atsushi Kainuma, Yoshinobu Maeda, Takako Miyazaki, Masaaki Yamagishi and Teiji Sawa

Multi-modality imaging evaluation of recurrent Tako-tsubo syndrome in a patient with coronary artery fibromuscular dysplasia

Integrated bedside and sophisticated cardiac imaging techniques help characterize the discrepancy between myocardial injury and mechanic dysfunction in acute myocardial infarction.

Authors: Yun Cheng, Chenying Lu and Kan Liu

Comparison of strain parameters in dyssynchronous heart failure between speckle tracking echocardiography vendor systems

Although mechanical dyssynchrony parameters derived by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) may predict response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), comparability of parameters derived with differen...

Authors: Wouter M. van Everdingen, Alexander H. Maass, Kevin Vernooy, Mathias Meine, Cornelis P. Allaart, Frederik J. De Lange, Arco J. Teske, Bastiaan Geelhoed, Michiel Rienstra, Isabelle C. Van Gelder, Marc A. Vos and Maarten J. Cramer

Troponin as ischemic biomarker is related with all three echocardiographic risk factors for sudden death in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (ESC Guidelines 2014)

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) risk stratification is the most important preventive action in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The identification of the ischemia biomarker high sensitive troponin I...

Authors: Rafał Hładij, Renata Rajtar-Salwa and Paweł Petkow Dimitrow

Could the use of bedside lung ultrasound reduce the number of chest x-rays in the intensive care unit?

Lung ultrasound can be used as an alternative to chest radiography (CXR) for the diagnosis and follow-up of various lung diseases in the intensive care unit (ICU). Our aim was to evaluate the influence that in...

Authors: Etrusca Brogi, Elena Bignami, Anna Sidoti, Mohammed Shawar, Luna Gargani, Luigi Vetrugno, Giovanni Volpicelli and Francesco Forfori

The impact of preload on 3-dimensional deformation parameters: principal strain, twist and torsion

Strain analysis is feasible using three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography. This approach provides various parameters based on speckle tracking analysis from one full-volume image of the left ventricle; however...

Authors: Hyo-Suk Ahn, Yong-Kyun Kim, Ho Chul Song, Euy Jin Choi, Gee-Hee Kim, Jung Sun Cho, Sang-Hyun Ihm, Hee-Yeol Kim, Chan Seok Park and Ho-Joong Youn

Preoperative single ventricle function determines early outcome after second-stage palliation of single ventricle heart

Second-stage palliation with hemi-Fontan or bidirectional Glenn procedures has improved the outcomes of patients treated for single-ventricle heart disease. The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyze...

Authors: Jacek Pająk, Michał Buczyński, Piotr Stanek, Grzegorz Zalewski, Marek Wites, Lesław Szydłowski, Bogusław Mazurek and Lidia Tomkiewicz-Pająk

Myocardial performance index in female athletes

Long-term intensive training leads to morphological and mechanical changes in the heart generally known as “athlete’s heart”. Previous studies have suggested that the diastolic and systolic function of the ven...

Authors: Zahraa Alsafi, Andreas Malmgren, Petri Gudmundsson, Martin Stagmo and Magnus Dencker

Carotid plaque rather than intima-media thickness as a predictor of recurrent vascular events in patients with acute ischemic stroke

To investigate the impacts of carotid plaque and intima-media thickness (IMT) on future vascular events (VEs) in the patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Authors: Hyun Ju Yoon, Kye Hun Kim, Hyukjin Park, Jae Yeong Cho, Young Joon Hong, Hyung Wook Park, Ju Han Kim, Youngkeun Ahn, Myung Ho Jeong, Jeong Gwan Cho and Jong Chun Park

Left ventricular outflow tract velocity time integral outperforms ejection fraction and Doppler-derived cardiac output for predicting outcomes in a select advanced heart failure cohort

Left ventricular outflow tract velocity time integral (LVOT VTI) is a measure of cardiac systolic function and cardiac output. Heart failure patients with low cardiac output are known to have poor cardiovascul...

Authors: Christina Tan, David Rubenson, Ajay Srivastava, Rajeev Mohan, Michael R. Smith, Kristen Billick, Samuel Bardarian and J. Thomas Heywood

Prenatal screening of fetal ventriculoarterial connections: benefits of 4D technique in fetal heart imaging

Identification of prenatal ventriculoarterial connections in fetuses with conotruncal anomalies (CTA) remains one of the greatest challenges for sonographers performing screening examinations. Herein, we propo...

Authors: Yu Wang, Miao Fan, Faiza Amber Siddiqui, Meilian Wang, Wei Sun, Xue Sun, Wenjia Lei and Ying Zhang

Diagnostic performance of multi-organ ultrasound with pocket-sized device in the management of acute dyspnea

The availability of ultra-miniaturized pocket ultrasound devices (PUD) adds diagnostic power to the clinical examination. Information on accuracy of ultrasound with handheld units in immediate differential dia...

Authors: Alfonso Sforza, Costantino Mancusi, Maria Viviana Carlino, Agostino Buonauro, Marco Barozzi, Giuseppe Romano, Sossio Serra and Giovanni de Simone

Pilot study using 3D–longitudinal strain computation in a multi-parametric approach for best selecting responders to cardiac resynchronization therapy

Almost all attempts to improve patient selection for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) using echo-derived indices have failed so far. We sought to assess: the performance of homemade software for the aut...

Authors: Maxime Fournet, Anne Bernard, Sylvestre Marechaux, Elena Galli, Raphael Martins, Philippe Mabo, J. Claude Daubert, Christophe Leclercq, Alfredo Hernandez and Erwan Donal

Investigation on left ventricular multi-directional deformation in patients of hypertension with different LVEF

This study is aimed at investigating myocardial multi-directional systolic deformation in hypertensive with different left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and exploring its contribution to LVEF.

Authors: Huimei Huang, Qinyun Ruan, Meiyan Lin, Lei Yan, Chunyan Huang and Liyun Fu

Feasibility and relevance of compound strain imaging in non-stenotic arteries: comparison between individuals with cardiovascular diseases and healthy controls

Compound strain imaging is a novel method to noninvasively evaluate arterial wall deformation which has recently shown to enable differentiation between fibrous and (fibro-)atheromatous plaques in patients wit...

Authors: Martijn F.H. Maessen, Thijs M.H. Eijsvogels, Ayla Grotens, Maria T.E. Hopman, Dick H.J. Thijssen and Hendrik H.G. Hansen

Different determinants of exercise capacity in HFpEF compared to HFrEF

Quality of life is as important as survival in heart failure (HF) patients. Controversies exist with regards to echocardiographic determinants of exercise capacity in HF, particularly in patients with preserve...

Authors: Arlind Batalli, Pranvera Ibrahimi, Ibadete Bytyçi, Artan Ahmeti, Edmond Haliti, Shpend Elezi, Michael Y. Henein and Gani Bajraktari

Cardiac shock-wave therapy in the treatment of coronary artery disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

To systematically review currently available cardiac shock-wave therapy (CSWT) studies in humans and perform meta-analysis regarding anti-anginal efficacy of CSWT.

Authors: Greta Burneikaitė, Evgeny Shkolnik, Jelena Čelutkienė, Gitana Zuozienė, Irena Butkuvienė, Birutė Petrauskienė, Pranas Šerpytis, Aleksandras Laucevičius and Amir Lerman

Effect of food intake on myocardial performance index

Myocardial performance index (MPI) has been investigated in a variety of populations, but the effect of food intake has not been evaluated. We assessed whether myocardial performance index is affected by food ...

Authors: Ylva Gårdinger, Anna Dieden, Joanna Hlebowicz, Ola Björgell and Magnus Dencker

Definition of common carotid wall thickness affects risk classification in relation to degree of internal carotid artery stenosis: the Plaque At RISK (PARISK) study

Mean or maximal intima-media thickness (IMT) is commonly used as surrogate endpoint in intervention studies. However, the effect of normalization by surrounding or median IMT or by diameter is unknown. In addi...

Authors: J Steinbuch, AC van Dijk, FHBM Schreuder, MTB Truijman, J Hendrikse, PJ Nederkoorn, A van der Lugt, E Hermeling, APG Hoeks and WH Mess

Quantification of the relative contribution of the different right ventricular wall motion components to right ventricular ejection fraction: the ReVISION method

Three major mechanisms contribute to right ventricular (RV) pump function: (i) shortening of the longitudinal axis with traction of the tricuspid annulus towards the apex; (ii) inward movement of the RV free w...

Authors: Bálint Lakatos, Zoltán Tősér, Márton Tokodi, Alexandra Doronina, Annamária Kosztin, Denisa Muraru, Luigi P. Badano, Attila Kovács and Béla Merkely

The clinical use of stress echocardiography in ischemic heart disease

Stress echocardiography is an established technique for the assessment of extent and severity of coronary artery disease. The combination of echocardiography with a physical, pharmacological or electrical stre...

Authors: Rosa Sicari and Lauro Cortigiani

Left Ventricular global longitudinal strain predicts heart failure readmission in acute decompensated heart failure

The goal of this study was to determine if left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) predicts heart failure (HF) readmission in patients with acute decompensated heart failure.

Authors: Simone Romano, Ibrahim N. Mansour, Mayank Kansal, Hana Gheith, Zachary Dowdy, Carolyn A. Dickens, Cassandra Buto-Colletti, June M. Chae, Hussam H. Saleh and Thomas D. Stamos

Erratum to: Modified mallampati classification in determining the success of unsedated transesophageal echocardiography procedure in patients with heart disease: simple but efficient

Authors: Jureerat Khongkaew, Dujdao Sahasthas, Tharrittawadha Potat and Phatchara Thammawirat

Right ventricular ejection fraction measurements using two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography by applying an ellipsoid model

There is today no established approach to estimate right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) using 2D transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). The aim of this study was to evaluate a new method for RVEF calculat...

Authors: Stina Jorstig, Micael Waldenborg, Mats Lidén and Per Thunberg

Stress echo 2020: the international stress echo study in ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease

Stress echocardiography (SE) has an established role in evidence-based guidelines, but recently its breadth and variety of applications have extended well beyond coronary artery disease (CAD). We lack a prospe...

Authors: Eugenio Picano, Quirino Ciampi, Rodolfo Citro, Antonello D’Andrea, Maria Chiara Scali, Lauro Cortigiani, Iacopo Olivotto, Fabio Mori, Maurizio Galderisi, Marco Fabio Costantino, Lorenza Pratali, Giovanni Di Salvo, Eduardo Bossone, Francesco Ferrara, Luna Gargani, Fausto Rigo…

Identification of the main determinants of abdominal aorta size: a screening by Pocket Size Imaging Device

Ultrasound exam as a screening test for abdominal aorta (AA) can visualize the aorta in 99% of patients and has a sensitivity and specificity approaching 100% in screening settings for aortic aneurysm. Pocket ...

Authors: Roberta Esposito, Federica Ilardi, Vincenzo Schiano Lomoriello, Regina Sorrentino, Vincenzo Sellitto, Giuseppe Giugliano, Giovanni Esposito, Bruno Trimarco and Maurizio Galderisi

Accuracy of echocardiographic area-length method in chronic myocardial infarction: comparison with cardiac CT in pigs

We evaluated echocardiographic area-length methods to measure left ventricle (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) in parasternal short axis views in comparison with cardiac computed tomography (CT) in pigs ...

Authors: Haitham Ballo, Miikka Tarkia, Matti Haavisto, Christoffer Stark, Marjatta Strandberg, Tommi Vähäsilta, Virva Saunavaara, Tuula Tolvanen, Mika Teräs, Ville-Veikko Hynninen, Timo Savunen, Anne Roivainen, Juhani Knuuti and Antti Saraste