Group Beating in a Woman With a DDD Pacemaker
A 79-year-old woman with severe aortic stenosis, a history of atrial fibrillation and sick sinus syndrome, and implantation of a biventricular DDD pacemaker 3 years earlier presented to the hospital…
Thoracic Sympathectomy for Severe Refractory Multivessel Coronary Artery Spasm
Coronary artery spasm is a rare but potentially fatal disease. Herein, we report a case of recurrent ST-segment myocardial infarctions and ventricular fibrillation complicating severe multivessel coronary artery spasm successfully…
High-Output Heart Failure from a Hepatic Hemangioma With Exertion-Induced Hypoxia
Patients with hepatic hemangiomas have been known to have high-output heart failure as a result of left-to-right arteriovenous shunting. We report a patient with a hepatic hemangioma that presented with…
Effects of Personal Exposure to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter on Acute Change in Nocturnal Heart Rate Variability in Subjects Without Overt Heart Disease
The immediate effect within minutes to hours of personal exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) on cardiac autonomic function is limited, particularly at night. Our study aimed…
Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Management in Prerenal Transplantation Candidates
Cardiovascular (CV) assessment in prerenal transplant patients varies by center. Current guidelines recommend stress testing for candidates if ≥3 CV risk factors exist. We evaluated the CV assessment and management…
Comparison of Fractional Flow Reserve Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Using Coronary Angiographic Vessel Morphology Versus Invasively Measured Fractional Flow Reserve
Invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR invasive ), although gold standard to identify hemodynamically relevant coronary stenoses, is time consuming and potentially associated with complications. We developed and evaluated a new…
Cost comparison of Transcatheter and Operative Pulmonary Valve Replacement (from the Pediatric Health Information Systems Database)
Outcomes for transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement (TC-PVR) and operative pulmonary valve replacement (S-PVR) are excellent. Thus, their respective cost is a relevant clinical outcome. We performed a retrospective cohort study…
Diagnostic Performance of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Echocardiography in Evaluation of Cardiac and Paracardiac Masses
Echocardiography is the preferred initial imaging method for assessment of cardiac masses. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, with its excellent tissue characterization and wide field of view, may provide additional…
Usefulness of C-Reactive Protein Plasma Levels to Predict Exercise Intolerance in Patients With Chronic Systolic Heart Failure
Patients with heart failure (HF) have evidence of chronic systemic inflammation. Whether inflammation contributes to the exercise intolerance in patients with HF is, however, not well established. We hypothesized that…
Echocardiographic and Blood Pressure Characteristics of First-Year Collegiate American-Style Football Players
Echocardiographic (echo) and blood pressure (BP) reference values may help identify athletes at cardiovascular risk, yet benchmarks are inadequate for collegiate American-style football (ASF) players. Our purpose was to describe…
