The Editors of Cardiovascular Ultrasound would like to thank all of our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 12 (2014) and whose valuable support is fundamental to its success.
Left ventricular (LV) radial tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) strain increases gradually from the subepicardial to the subendocardial layer in healthy individuals. A speckle tracking echocardiography study suggest...
Authors: Dana Cramariuc, Eva Gerdts, Johannes Just Hjertaas, Alexandru Cramariuc, Einar Skulstad Davidsen and Knut Matre
Athlete’s heart is a common definition for a broad spectrum of adaptations induced by intense exercise. We intended to compare left ventricular (LV) mechanics in two sports disciplines with different exercise ...
Authors: Ipoly Szauder, Attila Kovács and Gábor Pavlik
Pregnancy represents a physiological adaptation to the transient load changes of maternal heart. This study aimed to investigate maternal left ventricle (LV) performance during normal pregnancy by three-dimens...
Authors: Juan Cong, Tingpan Fan, Xiaoqian Yang, Jared Wynn Squires, Guomei Cheng, Linlin Zhang and Zhan Zhang
Carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) measured with ultrasound (US) is widely used as biomarker for arteriosclerosis and as surrogate endpoint in interventional studies to assess efficacy of drug therapies. St...
Monitoring the adherence to Appropriateness Use Criteria (AUC) has been identified as an important component for the accreditation of echocardiography laboratories. Referral requisitions are a logical tool to ...
Authors: Behnam Banihashemi, Kasra Maftoon, Benjamin J W Chow, Jordan Bernick, George A Wells and Ian G Burwash
Risks associated with air emboli introduced during cardiac surgery have been highlighted by reports of postoperative neuropsychological dysfunction, myocardial dysfunction, and mortality. Presently, there are ...
Authors: Frank Secretain, Andrew Pollard, Mesbah Uddin, Christopher G Ball, Andrew Hamilton, Robert C Tanzola, Joelle B Thorpe and Brian Milne
Aortic valve replacement (AVR) is the standard therapy in patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS). In high surgical risk patients, alternative therapeutic options to medical treatment (MT) such as trans...
Authors: Giovanni Cioffi, Cesare Tomasi, Andrea Rossi, Stefano Nistri, Luigi Tarantini, Giacomo Faden, Carmine Mazzone, Andrea Di Lenarda, Federica Ettori, Carlo Stefenelli and Pompilio Faggiano
Macrophages may concentrate ultrasound contrast agents and exhibit selective adhesion to activated endothelium. The present study investigates in mice the potential of perfluorohexane (PFH) loaded macrophages ...
Authors: Liselotte M Kornmann, Alma Zernecke, Daniëlle MJ Curfs, Ben JA Janssen, Christian Weber, Menno PJ de Winther, Robert S Reneman, Arnold PG Hoeks and Koen D Reesink
Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) imaging is a novel ultrasound technique for quantifying tissue elasticity. Studies have demonstrated that SWE is able to differentiate between diseased and normal tissue in a wide...
Authors: Kumar V Ramnarine, James W Garrard, Baris Kanber, Sarah Nduwayo, Timothy C Hartshorne and Thompson G Robinson
Carotid Duplex Ultrasonography (CDUS) is one of the non-invasive imaging modalities used to evaluate for carotid artery stenosis. However, it is often used in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), perip...
Authors: Mihir Barvalia, David Silber, Michael DiVita, Abinash Joshi, Najam Wasty and Marc Cohen
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether transcatheter renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) interfere with the development of left ventricular (LV) mechanical dyssynchrony during the progression of ...
Authors: Wei Hu, Qing-yan Zhao, Sheng-bo Yu, Bin Sun, Liao Chen, Sheng Cao and Rui-qiang Guo
Ischemic mitral regurgitation is an important consequence of LV remodeling after myocardial infarction. Echocardiographic diagnosis and assessment of ischemic mitral regurgitation are critical to gauge its adv...
Left atrium enlargement has been associated with cardiac events in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR). Left atrium reverse remodeling (LARR) occur after surgical correction of MR, but the preoperative pre...
Authors: Lucia R Machado, Zilda M Meneghelo, David CS Le Bihan, Rodrigo BM Barretto, Antonio C Carvalho and Valdir A Moises
Studies with other imaging modalities have demonstrated a relationship between contrast transit and cardiac output (CO) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). We tested the hypothesis that the transit time d...
Authors: Brian G Choi, Reza Sanai, Benjamin Yang, Heather A Young, Ramesh Mazhari, Jonathan S Reiner and Jannet F Lewis
To test the hypothesis that a semi-quantitative echocardiographic calcium score (eCS) significantly correlates with cardiac calcium measured by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and, secondarily,...
Authors: Nicola Gaibazzi, Chiara Baldari, Pompilio Faggiano, Lisa Albertini, Giacomo Faden, Filippo Pigazzani, Cristina Rossi and Claudio Reverberi
Mitral regurgitation may develop when the leaflets or any other portion of the apparatus becomes abnormal. As the repair techniques for mitral valve disease evolved, so has the need for detailed and accurate i...
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and high surgical risk. Hemodynamic performance after TAVI is ...
Authors: Cristina Gavina, Alexandra Gonçalves, Carlos Almeria, Rosana Hernandez, Adelino Leite-Moreira, Francisco Rocha-Gonçalves and José Zamorano
Diastolic wall strain (DWS), defined using posterior wall thickness (PWT) measurements from standard echocardiographic images (DWS = [PWT(systole)-PWT(diastole)]/PWT(systole)), has been proposed as a marker of...
Authors: Senthil Selvaraj, Frank G Aguilar, Eva E Martinez, Lauren Beussink, Kwang-Youn A Kim, Jie Peng, Daniel C Lee, Ateet Patel, Jin Sha, Marguerite R Irvin, Donna K Arnett and Sanjiv J Shah
Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of the majority of myocardial infarctions and ischemic strokes. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is a surrogate measure of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Le...
Authors: Kristin Evensen, Sebastian Imre Sarvari, Ole Morten Rønning, Thor Edvardsen and David Russell
Echocardiography is the standard method for assessing myocardial function in patients with ischemic heart disease. The acquisition and interpretation of echocardiographic images, however, remains a highly spec...
Authors: Razvan O Mada, Jürgen Duchenne and Jens-Uwe Voigt
Rodent models are increasingly used to study the development and progression of arterial stiffness. Both the non-invasive Doppler derived Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) and the invasively determined arterial elasta...
Authors: Eric E Morgan, Andrew B Casabianca, Samer J Khouri and Andrea L Nestor Kalinoski
Despite 5-7 months of physical inactivity during hibernation, brown bears (Ursus arctos) are able to cope with physiological conditions that would be detrimental to humans. During hibernation, the tissue metab...
Authors: Peter Godsk Jørgensen, Jon Arnemo, Jon E Swenson, Jan S Jensen, Søren Galatius and Ole Frøbert
The amount of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) around the heart has been identified as an independent predictor of coronary artery disease (CAD), potentially through local release of inflammatory cytokines. Eth...
Authors: Teresa G Yañez-Rivera, Manuel A Baños-Gonzalez, Jorge L Ble-Castillo, Manuel E Torres-Hernandez, Jorge E Torres-Lopez and Gabriela Borrayo-Sanchez
The identification of vascular alterations at the sub-clinical, asymptomatic stages are potentially useful for screening, prevention and improvement of cardiovascular risk stratification beyond classical risk ...
Authors: Rosa Maria Bruno, Elisabetta Bianchini, Francesco Faita, Stefano Taddei and Lorenzo Ghiadoni
The evaluation of cardiac contraction could benefit from a connection with the underlying helical structure of cardiac fibers in athletes either completely healthy or with minor common cardiopathies like Bicus...
Authors: Laura Stefani, Alessio De Luca, Loira Toncelli, Gianni Pedrizzetti and Giorgio Galanti
Impaired left ventricular diastolic filling is common in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), and recent studies support left ventricular underfilling as a cause. To investigate this further,...
Authors: Nicholas A Marston, William R Auger, Michael M Madani, Bruce J Kimura, G Monet Strachan, Ajit B Raisinghani, Anthony N DeMaria and Daniel G Blanchard
The study aimed to assess the level of plasma Endothelin-1 (ET-1) in patients before and after transcatheter closure of atrial septal defect (ASD) and to evaluate the usefulness of measuring ET-1 levels for th...
Authors: Monika Komar, Jakub Podolec, Wojciech Płazak, Jakub Stępniewski, Bartosz Sobień, Lidia Tomkiewicz-Pająk, Tadeusz Przewłocki and Piotr Podolec
Cardiac involvement is a relevant clinical finding in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and is associated with poor prognosis. Left atrial (LA) remodeling and/or dysfunction can be an early sign of diastolic dysfunctio...
Authors: Gergely Agoston, Luna Gargani, Marcelo Haertel Miglioranza, Maria Caputo, Luigi Paolo Badano, Antonella Moreo, Denisa Muraru, Sergio Mondillo, Alberto Moggi Pignone, Marco Matucci Cerinic, Rosa Sicari, Eugenio Picano and Albert Varga
To evaluate the interobserver reliability of echocardiographic findings of right ventricle (RV) dysfunction for prognosticating normotensive patients with pulmonary embolism (PE).
Authors: Dita Kopecna, Sem Briongos, Hugo Castillo, Carlos Moreno, Mónica Recio, Paula Navas, José Luis Lobo, Angel Alonso-Gomez, Izaskun Obieta-Fresnedo, Covadonga Fernández-Golfin, José Luis Zamorano and David Jiménez
Left atrial (LA) size is a predictor of cardiovascular outcomes in patients in sinus rhythm, whereas conflicting results have been found in atrial fibrillation (AF). This study aims to: (1) Evaluate the accura...
Authors: Ana Faustino, Rui Providência, Sérgio Barra, Luís Paiva, Joana Trigo, Ana Botelho, Marco Costa and Lino Gonçalves
There is increasing interest in guiding Heart Failure (HF) therapy with Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) or N-terminal prohormone of Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP), with the goal of lowering concentratio...
Authors: Maria Chiara Scali, Anca Simioniuc, Frank Lloyd Dini and Mario Marzilli
(Semi) supine exercise testing has an established role in the evaluation of patients with valvular heart disease and can help clinical decision making. Stress echocardiography has the advantages of its wide av...
Authors: Pawel Petkow Dimitrow, Carlos Cotrim and Tsung O Cheng
In the last 15 years, a new imaging application of sonography has emerged in the clinical arena: lung ultrasound (LUS). From its traditional assessment of pleural effusions and masses, LUS has moved towards th...
A novel polymer-shelled contrast agent (CA) with multimodal and target-specific potential was developed recently. To determine its ultrasonic diagnostic features, we evaluated the endocardial border delineatio...
Authors: Malin K Larsson, Matilda Larsson, Greg Nowak, Gaio Paradossi, Lars-Åke Brodin, Birgitta Janerot Sjöberg, Kenneth Caidahl and Anna Bjällmark
Dynamic left ventricular (LV) outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction (DLVOTO) is not infrequently observed in older individuals without overt hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). We sought to investigate associated ge...
Authors: Jung-Joon Cha, Hyemoon Chung, Young Won Yoon, Ji Hyun Yoon, Jong-Youn Kim, Pil-Ki Min, Byoung-Kwon Lee, Bum-Kee Hong, Se-Joong Rim, Hyuck Moon Kwon and Eui-Young Choi
The increasing cost of healthcare is a widespread international problem to which the cost of imaging has been an important contributor. Some imaging tests are ordered inappropriately and contribute to wasted u...
We previously reported the use of a catheter system to damage the tricuspid valve and create infectious endocarditis (IE) in an animal model. The current study aims to create a faint IE model suitable for anti...
Authors: Mei-lian Wang, Ying Zhang, Miao Fan, Ya-jun Guo, Wei-dong Ren and En-jie Luo
Heart transplantation is limited by severe donor organ shortage. Regardless of the changes made in the acceptance of marginal donors, any such mechanism cannot be considered successful unless recipient graft s...
Authors: Tonino Bombardini, Giorgio Arpesella, Massimo Maccherini, Francesco Procaccio, Luciano Potena, Sonia Bernazzali, Ornella Leone and Eugenio Picano
Left atrial volume (LAV) and exercise capacity are important prognostic determinants of cardiovascular risk. Exercise intolerance and increased LAV are expected in patients with diastolic dysfunction. While dy...
Aortic intima-media thickness measured by transabdominal ultrasound (aIMT) is an intermediate phenotype of cardiovascular risk. We aimed to (1) investigate the reproducibility of aIMT in a population-derived c...
Authors: Kate McCloskey, Anne-Louise Ponsonby, John B Carlin, Kim Jachno, Michael Cheung, Michael R Skilton, Jane Koleff, Peter Vuillermin and David Burgner
To clarify the time-course changes in left ventricular myocardial deformation using velocity vector imaging and to provide insights into our understanding of the cardiac pathophysiology in diabetes mellitus.
Authors: Shi Zeng, Tao Jiang, Qi-chang Zhou, Lianghui Yuan, Jia-wei Zhou and Dan-min Cao
Persistent foramen ovale (PFO) is considered a cause of cryptogenic stroke and a risk factor for neurological events in young patients. The reference standard for identifying a PFO is contrast-enhanced transes...
Authors: Monika Komar, Maria Olszowska, Tadeusz Przewłocki, Jakub Podolec, Jakub Stępniewski, Bartosz Sobień, Rafał Badacz, Anna Kabłak-Ziembicka, Lidia Tomkiewicz-Pająk and Piotr Podolec
Increased arterial stiffness is a risk factor of atherosclerosis and cardio-vascular complications. The aim of the study was to determine whether peripheral vascular function might be an early marker of impair...
Authors: Lidia Tomkiewicz-Pajak, Hanna Dziedzic-Oleksy, Jacek Pajak, Maria Olszowska, Jacek Kolcz, Monika Komar and Piotr Podolec
Studies assessing ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) comprised of heterogeneous population and evaluated IMR in the subacute setting. The incidence of early IMR in the setting of primary PCI, its progression ...
Authors: Jimmy MacHaalany, Olivier F Bertrand, Kim O’Connor, Eltigani Abdelaal, Pierre Voisine, Éric Larose, Éric Charbonneau, Olivier Costerousse, Jean-Pierre Déry and Mario Sénéchal
Subclinical myocardial involvement is common in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and associated with poor prognosis. Early detection, particularly during follow-up, is important. Two-dimensional speckle tracking echoc...
Authors: Sebastian Spethmann, Karl Rieper, Gabriela Riemekasten, Adrian C Borges, Sebastian Schattke, Gerd-Ruediger Burmester, Bernd Hewing, Gert Baumann, Henryk Dreger and Fabian Knebel
Our aim was to assess whether anterograde flow velocities in septal perforating branches could identify an occluded contralateral coronary artery, and to assess the feasibility and accuracy of diagnosing occlu...
Authors: Johnny Vegsundvåg, Espen Holte, Rune Wiseth, Knut Hegbom and Torstein Hole
Regular physical activity reduces cardiovascular risk. There is concern that Marathon running might acutely damage the heart. It is unknown to what extent intensive physical endurance activity influences the c...
Authors: Sebastian Schattke, Yan Xing, Jürgen Lock, Lars Brechtel, Sabrina Schroeckh, Sebastian Spethmann, Gert Baumann, Adrian C Borges and Fabian Knebel
Left ventricular diastolic impairment and consequently elevated filling pressure may contribute to stasis leading to left atrial appendage thrombus (LAAT) in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF). We investigat...
Authors: Rami Doukky, Enrique Garcia-Sayan, Heather Gage, Vijaiganesh Nagarajan, Anna Demopoulos, Marek Cena, Noreen T Nazir, George J Karam, Richard G Trohman and Rasa Kazlauskaite
