Obesity in young otherwise-healthy women is associated with concentric LV remodeling and decreased systolic and diastolic function. These early abnormalities in LV structure and function may have important implications for explaining the myocardial dysfunction that is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality caused by obesity.

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A new parametrized diastolic filling (PDF) formalism for evaluation of holodiastolic (left and right) ventricular function via Doppler echocardiography is presented. It is motivated by the empiric observation that during diastole the heart behaves as a suction pump whose dynamics, in certain respects, are those of a damped harmonic oscillator. An expression for elastic recoil (suction) initiated ventricular diastolic fluid inflow velocity v(t) is obtained by differentiation from the solution x(t) of the linear differential equation that describes the motion of a forced, damped harmonic oscillator. It is solved for "over-damped" motion, for zero initial velocity and initial displacement = xo cm. An explicit forcing term F(t) = Fosin(omega t) is included to account for late diastolic (atrial) filling. The quantitative parameters of the model include inertia (mass; m), viscosity (damping constant; c), source of stored energy for suction (spring constant; k), and its initial displacement xo, the amplitude and frequency of the (atrial) forcing term Fo, omega. The mathematical behavior of the solution v(t) and its dependence on the parameters xo, c, and k, which characterize the contour of the Doppler velocity profile (DVP), is discussed. When clinical examples of normal and abnormal transmitral DVPs are compared with v(t) calculated using the harmonic oscillator model, excellent agreement [DVP-v(t)]/v(t) approximately 0.05 is obtained throughout diastole. Thus the model allows accurate qualitative and quantitative characterization of global ventricular diastolic behavior by noninvasive means in a variety of normal and abnormal stiffness-compliance states. In addition, it may serve as a prototype for a class of mathematical models that can encompass the essential dynamic elements of ventricular diastolic function that couple to flow and further enhance the role of the heart as a suction pump.

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Atherosclerosis of the ascending aorta is an independent predictor of long-term neurologic events and mortality. These results provide additional evidence that in addition to being a direct cause of cerebral atheroembolism, an atherosclerotic ascending aorta may be a marker of generalized atherosclerosis and thus of increased morbidity and mortality.

To provide an approach suitable for on-line analysis of ventricular function, a conventional two-dimensional ultrasound imaging system was modified to detect and track blood-tissue interfaces in real time based on their quantitative acoustic properties. This modification permitted on-line display of the left ventricular cavity area, fractional area change, volumes and ejection fraction on a beat by beat basis. Images were obtained from 54 patients and 12 normal subjects with broad ranges of ventricular dimensions and systolic function. On-line measurements of cavity areas were compared with off-line measurements of cavity areas (analysis of videotaped conventional images). Left ventricular cavity areas measured on-line from short-axis views correlated closely with off-line views as did areas from apical views. On-line fractional area change correlated well with ejection fraction calculated off-line. More than 70% of patients could be studied adequately with the approach developed. Thus, automatic boundary detection based on quantitative assessment of tissue acoustic properties permits on-line quantitation of ventricular cavity areas and indexes of function.

To elucidate determinants of hemodynamic compromise in patients with acute right ventricular (RV) infarction, we studied 16 patients with hemodynamically severe RV infarction by right heart catheterization and two-dimensional ultrasound. Severe RV systolic dysfunction, evident by ultrasound in all patients as RV dilatation and depressed RV free wall motion, was associated with a broad sluggish RV