Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography
-
J Am Soc Echocardiogr · Oct 2010
Biography Historical ArticleASE sonographer's research brings distinctive recognition in aerospace medicine.
-
J Am Soc Echocardiogr · Oct 2010
Case ReportsElectrical dissociation within the left atrium and left atrial appendage diagnosed with transesophageal echocardiography.
The authors describe the case of a 79-year-old man with prior mitral valve repair and a maze procedure who developed recurrent atrial fibrillation, in whom transesophageal echocardiography revealed an accessory lobe of the left atrial appendage in sinus rhythm when the remaining body of the left atrial appendage was in atrial fibrillation or flutter. Electrophysiology confirmed dissociated rhythm within the left atrium. This case emphasizes the need for careful Doppler interrogation of the left atrial appendage and its lobes to look for dissociated atrial rhythm.
-
J Am Soc Echocardiogr · Oct 2010
Case ReportsUtility of three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography: anatomy, mechanism, and severity of regurgitation in a patient with an isolated cleft posterior mitral valve.
Echocardiographic assessment of a 72-year-old woman revealed a posterior mitral valve prolapse with an unusual central regurgitation jet. The use of three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography elucidated the mismatch between morphologic and color Doppler echocardiographic findings: There was a cleft in the posterior mitral valve in addition to the posterior mitral valve prolapse. This case illustrates that the use of high-quality real-time 3D transesophageal echocardiography (including 3D color Doppler) facilitates the understanding of the anatomy and the mechanism and severity of regurgitation in complex mitral valve pathology and is clearly superior to two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography alone.
-
J Am Soc Echocardiogr · Aug 2010
Carotid ultrasound identifies high risk subclinical atherosclerosis in adults with low framingham risk scores.
Worldwide, cardiovascular (CV) disease remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality. Although effective in predicting CV risk in select populations, the Framingham risk score (FRS) fails to identify many young individuals who experience premature CV events. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of high-risk carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) or plaque, a marker of atherosclerosis and predictor of CV events, in young asymptomatic individuals with low and intermediate FRS (<2% annualized event rate) using the carotid ultrasound protocol recommended by the American Society of Echocardiography and the Society of Vascular Medicine. ⋯ Thirty-eight percent of asymptomatic young to middle-aged individuals with FRS < or = 5% have abnormal carotid ultrasound findings associated with increased risk for CV events. Pharmacologic therapy for CV prevention was recommended in the majority of these individuals. The lack of radiation exposure, relatively low cost, and ability to detect early-stage atherosclerosis suggest that carotid ultrasound for CIMT and plaque detection should continue to be explored as a primary tool for CV risk stratification in young to middle-aged adults with low FRS.
-
J Am Soc Echocardiogr · Jul 2010
Comparative StudyInfluence of parasympathetic modulation in doppler mitral inflow velocity in individuals without heart disease.
The relation between left ventricular filing velocities determined by Doppler echocardiography and autonomic nervous system function assessed by heart rate variability (HRV) is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of the autonomic nervous system assessed by the time and frequency domain indices of HRV in the Doppler indices of left ventricular diastolic filling velocities in patients without heart disease. ⋯ Individuals with no evidence of heart disease and an E/A ratio<1 demonstrated a significant decrease in indexes of HRV associated with parasympathetic modulation.