[Transmitral flow patterns during acute coronary artery occlusion: experimental and clinical evaluations by pulsed Doppler echocardiography].

To evaluate left ventricular diastolic properties during acute myocardial ischemia, transmitral flow patterns were analyzed by two-dimensional pulsed Doppler echocardiography. In a preliminary study of transient coronary artery occlusion in anesthetized open-chest dogs, the following results were obtained: decreased peak velocity of rapid filling, prolonged rapid filling period, and compensatory increase in the peak velocity of atrial filling. These changes occurred nearly concomitantly with decreased cardiac output, elevated left atrial and left ventricular end-diastolic pressures, and decreased left ventricular systolic pressures. With reperfusion of the coronary artery, these parameters rapidly returned to the base line values. In acute and transient myocardial ischemia induced by intracoronary balloon inflation during therapeutic percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in man, similar changes in these parameters were observed, and the changes were more marked in PTCA for the left anterior descending artery as compared with that of the right coronary artery. In conclusion, noninvasive two-dimensional pulsed Doppler echocardiography is of practical use in evaluating deterioration of the diastolic function of the left ventricle during acute and transient myocardial ischemia.

[Differences in left ventricular systolic performance during exercise in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and systemic hypertension].

To evaluate differences in systolic global and regional performances of the left ventricle during exercise, multi-stage submaximal exercise echocardiography was used for 21 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and 14 patients with systemic hypertension (HT), whose interventricular septa (IVS) were nearly the same in thickness (HCM; 16.5 +/- 2.4 mm, HT; 15.4 +/- 1.7 mm, NS). The data were compared with those of 18 normal subjects (N). During exercise, end-diastolic dimension (EDD) was increased in all three groups; however, there was no statistical differences among the three groups either at rest or during exercise. End-systolic dimension (ESD) was significantly decreased during exercise in HT (29.3 +/- 5.8 at rest to 28.1 +/- 5.8 mm at the peak exercise, p less than 0.05) and N (from 30.3 +/- 3.3 to 25.7 +/- 3.0 mm, p less than 0.001). On the other hand, ESD of HCM at rest, which was less than those of the other two groups, did not decrease with exercise (from 25.1 +/- 4.5 to 25.6 +/- 4.6 mm, NS), and rather they increased (more than 2 mm) during exercise in seven patients. The % shortening fraction (%SF) increased from rest to exercise both in HT (35.6 +/- 7.9% to 40.1 +/- 9.6%, p less than 0.001) and in N (from 35.1 +/- 4.2 to 45.9 +/- 4.7%, p less than 0.001). However, in the HCM group, the %SF, which was significantly greater at rest than in the other two groups, did not increase during exercise (42.5 +/- 6.8 to 42.5 +/- 8.8%, NS). In addition, in seven of 21 patients with HCM, the %SF increased more than 5% at the peak exercise. At rest, systolic wall thickening (%WT) of the IVS equally reduced both in HCM and HT. It increased in HT from 20.8 +/- 9.3% at rest to 24.6 +/- 12.7% at the peak exercise (p less than 0.05), but did not change in HCM (from 16.6 +/- 9.6% to 16.3 +/- 7.0%, NS). At rest, %WT of the left ventricular posterior wall (LVPW) was significantly greater in HCM than in HT. During exercise, it increased in HT (from 43.1 +/- 15.9% to 61.9 +/- 20.5%, p less than 0.01), but did not increase in HCM (from 81.0 +/- 27.7% to 85.5 +/- 29.6%, NS).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

[Coronary reserve of the right ventricle evaluated by double dose T1-201 scintigraphy].

Thallium-201 double dose scintigraphy was applied to exercise to estimate the coronary blood flow reserve of the left and right ventricles and this was compared with the degree of coronary artery stenosis. As an index of coronary reserve we measured the rate of change of blood flow distribution (delta F) calculated from the change in myocardial radioactivity following thallium-201 injections, once at rest and once during exercise. With submaximal exercise the increases in delta F of the left ventricle were less in patients with ischemic heart disease than in the control subjects, and were less as the number of diseased coronary vessels increased. The increases of delta F of the right ventricle were less in patients with stenosis of the proximal portion of the right coronary artery than in patients without stenosis and in the control subjects. The more severe the stenosis of the proximal portion of the right coronary artery, the smaller the delta F of the right ventricle. These results indicate that evaluation of the delta F in the left and right ventricles is useful in estimating coronary artery stenosis.

[Exercise echocardiography to evaluate left ventricular function in mitral and aortic regurgitation].

To assess differences in left ventricular (LV) performance between mitral regurgitation (MR) and aortic regurgitation (AR), exercise echocardiography was performed for 12 patients with MR and 18 patients with AR, and the results were compared with those of 11 normal subjects. These patients with LV volume overloads were all in the NYHA class I or II. There were no differences in age or sex distributions between the two groups. Symptom-limited submaximal exercise was performed on an ergometer in the supine position. The results obtained were as follows: LV dimensions at end-diastole (EDD) and end-systole (ESD) were greater in the diseased groups than in the normal group. Resting EDD and ESD showed no differences between the MR and the AR groups. There were no differences in exercise-induced increases in heart rates or elevations of systolic blood pressures among the three groups. During exercise, EDD increased and ESD decreased in the normal group, and similar results were obtained for the MR group. However, in the AR group, EDD and ESD remained unchanged. Ten of the 18 patients with AR had decreased ESD, and eight had unchanged or increased ESD during exercise. Resting shortening fractions were equally distributed among the three groups. During exercise, the shortening fractions were significantly increased in the normal and the MR groups. In the AR group, shortening fractions remained at resting values, with variable responses in individual cases. Systolic wall thickening of the interventricular septum and the LV posterior wall showed similar responses of shortening fractions. The relation between the peak systolic wall stress index (PSSI) and ESD, or PSSI and the shortening fraction revealed that exercise induced an afterload mismatch of LV performance in some patients with AR. Thus, though resting LV performances did not differ from each other, an afterload mismatch is more easily induced with exercise in patients with AR than in patients with MR. This may be one of the cause of the different clinical courses in these two groups with LV volume overloads.