Endomyocardial fibrosis: Report of eight cases

Abstract

Endomyocardial fibrosis is a disease of unknown origin which has not previously been described in detail from the Middle East. The clinical, echocardiographic, hemodynamic and angiocardiographic findings in eight patients (five men and three women, mean age 38 years) are presented. Two patients had right-sided involvement, two had left-sided involvement and four had biventricular involvement. The presence of a small ventricle with obliteration of the apex and a large atrium is a two-dimensional echocardiographic finding highly suggestive of endomyocardial fibrosis. Hemodynamic characteristics of dip and plateau on ventricular pressure curves were present in six patients. Ventricular angiography was diagnostic in all cases. Endomyocardial biopsy yielded positive findings in three of six patients and is not essential for diagnosis.

Cardiomyopathy in Saudi Arabia: The King Khalid University Hospital Experience

“…14 A recent report describes eight cases from Saudi Arabia. 15 Our three cases satisfied both clinical and echocardiographic criteria for this diagnosis as suggested by Benotti et al 16 …”

Endomyocardial Fibrosis: Clinical, Echocardiographic and Hemodynamic Findings

“…It has been recognized in other areas [7][8][9][10][11][12]. We recognized this disease in the Middle East for the first time in 1980 [4,5]. In Saudi Arabia, the disease can mimic the more common rheumatic valvular disease and tuberculous constrictive pericarditis.…”

“…The left ventricular end-diastolic volume is characteristically normal, even in patients with severe mitral regurgitation, and the end-diastolic pressure is very high in patients with left-sided EMF [4,11]. The ventricular end-diastolic volume increases in patients with poor ventricle and severe hypokinesia of the remaining ventricle, representing a very late stage of the disease.…”

Coronary Blood Flow by Transthoracic Echocardiography in Children with Endomyocardial Fibrosis

“…CF was calculated as follows: CF (ml/min) = VTIs+d x Heart rate x π (coronary radius) 2 . As illustrated in Table 1, the coronary parameters were increased in patients compared with controls.…”

“…The main clinical features of this idiopathic disorder are primarily related to restrictive ventricular filling caused by obliteration of the apex and fibrosis in the endomyocardial layers of either one or both ventricles. The apical changes along with severe atrial enlargement are viewed as hallmarks by two-dimensional echocardiography (2).…”