Cleveland Clinic journal of medicine
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Doppler echocardiography is useful in assessing diastolic dysfunction. Pulsed-wave Doppler echocardiographic interrogation of the atrioventricular valves and the central veins has been used in conjunction with respiratory monitoring to characterize abnormal diastolic function of the heart in diseases such as constrictive pericarditis, restrictive cardiomyopathy, and cardiac tamponade. ⋯ Cardiac amyloidosis shows a spectrum of the Doppler flows which evolve as the disease progresses from abnormal relaxation in the early phase to pseudo-normal in the intermediate phase and to restrictive in the advanced phase. Doppler echocardiography can be used to assess the hemodynamic significance of pericardial effusion and to detect cardiac tamponade.
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Lung and heart-lung transplantation is one of the most rapidly evolving transplantation fields. Survival has been improving with better patient selection, better graft preservation, and better immunosuppression. ⋯ The Cleveland Clinic Foundation experience with these procedures is presented. Lung and heart-lung transplantation has emerged from the experimental realm to the therapeutic, and can now be offered as an effective treatment option to many patients with previously fatal heart and lung disorders.