Search results for "Artery"

Valvular Heart Disease

2013

Valvular heart disease (VHD) refers to a wide spectrum of cardiac disorders that affect a large number of patients. Echocardiography is still considered the pivotal imaging method to evaluate the cardiac valves. However, echocardiography has some intrinsic limitations due to operator dependence and patient habitus. In the last two decades three-dimensional techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) have provided valuable assessment of VHD. MRI overcomes the limitation of the poor acoustic window of echocardiography without ionizing radiation. Nowadays, MRI aims to be considered as the reference standard for imaging cardiac valves because of the improved…

Chronic atrial fibrillation in presence of aortic stenosis in a patient with polysplenia syndrome.

2013

We report a rare case of “situs viscerum ambiguous” with polysplenia syndrome, in a 69 year old female patient with aortic stenosis and chronic atrial fibrillation. The presenting symptom was dyspnoea on moderate exertion and an ECG showed supra ventricular arrhythmia. Patients trans-thoracic echocardiogram revealed a dilated left atrium, reduced ejection fraction, mild tricuspid regurgitation, moderate-severe pulmonary hypertension and severe aortic stenosis. The patient was successfully treated with a replacement of her aortic valve and ascending aorta.

Three-Dimensional Echocardiographic Evaluation of Aortic and Mitral Valve Stenosis

2001

Dynamic volume rendered three-dimensional echocardiography allows the spatial recognition of anatomy and function of the aortic and mitral valves with acceptable image quality. The aortic valve can be best visualized in a view from the ascending aorta down to the valve level, thus allowing an overview of the aortic aspect of the valve in a surgeon's perspective in ∼ 80% of patients. Planimetric measurement of the aortic valve area was possible in 88% of patients, and there is no systematic overestimation or underestimation of aortic valve area compared with two-dimensional echocardiography and catheterization. The entire valvular circumference of the mitral valve can be assessed from both a…

Statistical shape analysis of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm: Correlation between shape and biomechanical descriptors

2020

An ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) is a heterogeneous disease showing different patterns of aortic dilatation and valve morphologies, each with distinct clinical course. This study aimed to explore the aortic morphology and the associations between shape and function in a population of ATAA, while further assessing novel risk models of aortic surgery not based on aortic size. Shape variability of n = 106 patients with ATAA and different valve morphologies (i.e., bicuspid versus tricuspid aortic valve) was estimated by statistical shape analysis (SSA) to compute a mean aortic shape and its deformation. Once the computational atlas was built, principal component analysis (PCA) allow…

Accumulation of ApoE-containing triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in normolipidemic men with premature coronary artery disease

2000

Accumulation of apoE-enriched triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in patients with coronary artery disease.

2005

Triglycerides (TGs) are vehicled by multiple particles with different abilities to promote atherosclerosis. Among plasma TG-rich lipoproteins (TRLs), subspecies may or may not contain apolipoprotein E (apoE) molecules: in this study, we evaluated the relative contribution of apoE-rich and apoE-poor TRLs to coronary atherosclerosis. We selected a group of males with premature coronary artery disease (CAD) without any of the classical nonlipid risk factors and/or high plasma lipid levels and evaluated the plasma concentration of TRL subspecies in comparison with healthy controls. Patients with CAD and controls had total cholesterol and TG levels within the normal range (despite slightly, even…

2015

Patients suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases have an increased mortality risk resulting from cardiovascular disorders due to enhanced atherosclerotic and thrombotic events. Until now, it is not completely understood in which way an abnormal expression of pro-inflammatory mediators contributes to this elevated cardiovascular risk, but there is a need for new drugs that on the one hand suppress the expression of pro-inflammatory mediators and on the other hand inhibit arterial platelet adhesion. Thus, we analyzed the anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic capacity of the fungal metabolite Galiellalactone in atherosclerosis-prone apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. Treatment of the mice w…

Genetic polymorphisms affecting the phenotypic expression in familial hypercholesterolemia

2004

The clinical expression of heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is highly variable even in patients carrying the same LDL receptor (LDL-R) gene mutation. This variability might be due to environmental factors as well as to modifying genes affecting lipoprotein metabolism. We investigated Apo E (2, 3, 4), MTP (-493G/T), Apo B (-516C/T), Apo A-V (-1131T/C), HL (-514C/T and -250G/A), FABP-2 (A54T), LPL (D9N, N291S, S447X) and ABCA1 (R219K) polymorphisms in 221 unrelated FH index cases and 349 FH relatives with defined LDL-R gene mutations. We found a significant and independent effect of the following polymorphisms on: (i) plasma LDL-C (Apo E, MTP and Apo B); (ii) plasma HDL-C (HL, …

Effects of PCSK9 variants on common carotid artery intima media thickness and relation to ApoE alleles.

2009

BACKGROUND: PCSK9 plays a key role in plasma cholesterol metabolism by modulating the expression of LDL receptors. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: In this study we investigated the effects of two common polymorphism of the PCSK9 gene (E670G and I474V) on the intima media thickness of the common carotid artery and the possible relation with polymorphisms of apolipoprotein E in 1541 middle aged subjects selected from the general population enrolled in the PLIC study and confirmed the major findings in a second free-living population enrolled in the Ventimiglia study. RESULTS: 670G carriers showed significantly increased plasma total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and Apo levels B while no significant d…

Two Italian kindreds carrying the Arg136--Ser mutation of the Apo E gene: development of premature and severe atherosclerosis in the presence of epsi…

2003

Abstract Background and Aims: Type III hyperlipoproteinemia, or dysbetalipoproteinemia, is commonly associated with apolipoprotein E2 homozygosity (Cy Background and Aims: 12, Cy Background and Aims: 58). Apo E2-Christchurch (Arg136→Ser), a rare mutation of the Apo E gene, located in the receptor-binding domain of the protein, has been found to be associated in the vast majority of cases of dysbetalipoproteinemia. Methods and Results: This is the first report of two Italian kindreds carrying the Arg136→Ser mutation. One family is a four-generation kindred from Genoa (Liguria, Italy) with a high rate of mortality due to coronary artery disease: the proband was a 51-year-old woman with previo…