Archives des maladies du coeur et des vaisseaux
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Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss · Mar 2007
Comparative Study[Early detection of myocardial disease in young patients with Becker's muscular dystrophy asymptomatic from the cardiac point of view: value of myocardial doppler tissue imaging].
Becker's muscular dystrophy is an X-linked hereditary disorder characterised by progressive muscle weakness and possible cardiac disease. Cardiac involvement is assumed to be rare in young patients. Early diagnosis could lead to earlier treatment at an infra-clinical stage of the disease. ⋯ Nevertheless, patients with Becker's disease had lower systolic and diastolic intra-myocardial velocity gradients: 2.2 +/- 1.1 vs. 4.7 +/- 2.4 s(-1), p = 0.006, and 3.6 +/- 2.0 vs. 5.6 +/- 1.3 s(-1), p = 0.048, respectively, compared with the control group. These results show that myocardial disease is possible in patients with Becker's muscular dystrophy under the age of 20. Myocardial Doppler tissue imaging is a sensitive method for detecting these early abnormalities and should be recommended in the young patients.
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Arch Mal Coeur Vaiss · Mar 2007
[Variations of radiation dosage delivered to patients undergoing interventional cardiological procedures. A monocentric study 2002-05].
X-ray exposure of patient during coronary angiography (CA) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) may have some deleterious effects. The dose area product (DAP), related to the effective dose, is a measure of stochastic risk and a potential quality indicator. The aim of our study was to assess radiation exposure of patients in a large series of "real life" interventional cardiac procedures. ⋯ In conclusion, radiation exposure to patients and staff are strongly dependent on operators, time course, and the arterial access, due in part to the learning curve for radial approach. The enhanced knowledge of radiation dose is the first step of a radiation dose-reduction program, likely to minimize patient and operator radiation hazards in interventional cardiology. Definition of national reference values for DAP and fluoroscopy time would be helpful for appropriate comparisons.