Articles

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More than 200 results
Article

Left dominant arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy

Left dominant arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy is a variant of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy that predominantly affects the left ventricle of the heart. It may also be known as arrhythmogenic left ventricular cardiomyopathy 4. Clinical presentation The main clinical diagnostic f...
Article

Hibernating myocardium

Hibernating myocardium is myocardial tissue that has reduced contractility due to poor perfusion but remains viable. In ischaemic heart disease, evaluating myocardial viability is important because hibernating myocardium can recover function after revascularisation.  Pathology Hibernating myoc...
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Mitral valve leaflet calcification

Mitral valve leaflet calcification or mitral leaflet calcification refers to the deposition of calcium on the mitral valvular leaflets as opposed to mitral annular calcification in the mitral annulus. It has been associated with mitral stenosis 1,2.  Epidemiology Mitral leaflet calcification h...
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Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm

A sinus of Valsalva aneurysm refers to abnormal dilatation of the sinus of valsalva and is a cause of thoracic aortic dilatation. Sinus of Valsalva aneurysms arise from one of the aortic sinuses. They are either congenital or acquired. Epidemiology There is a male predilection (M:F ratio being...
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Cardiac fibroma

Cardiac fibromas, also known as cardiac fibromatosis, are benign congenital cardiac tumours that usually manifest in children.  Epidemiology Cardiac fibromas are tumours that primarily affect children (most cases are detected in infants or in utero) with a ratio of 4:1 compared with adults 5. ...
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Cardiac undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma

Cardiac undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas are highly malignant mesenchymal tumours of the heart. Terminology Terms that are no longer recommended for use include ‘intimal sarcoma’, ‘undifferentiated sarcoma’ and ‘undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma’ 1. Epidemiology Cardiac undifferenti...
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Waterston shunt

A Waterston shunt is a form of palliative surgery performed in patients with tetralogy of Fallot prior to the ability to repair the defect. It consists of a shunt formed between the ascending aorta and the right pulmonary artery. This does not relieve the right ventricular outflow obstruction, ...
Article

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

The Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome describes paroxysmal tachydysrhythmias in the presence of a specific accessory pathway which allows direct electrical connection between the atria and ventricles, which usually exclusively occurs via the atrioventricular (AV) node. The accessory pathway is usua...
Article

Myocardial mapping

Myocardial mapping or parametric mapping of the heart is one of various magnetic resonance imaging techniques, which has evolved and been increasingly used in the last decade for non-invasive tissue characterisation of the myocardium 1-5. Unlike normal T1-, T2- or T2*- images, parametric mapping...
Article

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy protocol (MRI)

The MRI hypertrophic cardiomyopathy protocol encompasses a set of different MRI sequences for the cardiac assessment in case of suspected hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Note: This article aims to frame a general concept of a cardiac MRI protocol in the assessment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or...
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Haemochromatosis (cardiac manifestations)

Cardiac involvement in haemochromatosis typically occurs with primary haemochromatosis, as the organ is usually spared in the secondary form of the disease. For a general discussion, and for links to other system specific manifestations, please refer to the article on haemochromatosis.  Epidem...
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Eisenmenger complex

Eisenmenger complex is a specific subset of Eisenmenger syndrome, and consists of: ventricular septal defect (VSD) severe pulmonary arterial hypertension resulting in shunt reversal and cyanosis
Article

60/60 sign (echocardiography)

The 60/60 sign in echocardiography refers to the coexistence of a truncated right ventricular outflow tract acceleration time (AT <60 ms) with a pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (PASP) of less than 60 mmHg (but more than 30 mmHg). In the presence of right ventricular failure, it is consisten...
Article

Diagonal branches of the left anterior descending artery

Diagonal branches of the left anterior descending coronary artery supply blood flow to the anterior and anterolateral walls of the left ventricle. There are usually denoted as D1, D2, D3, etc.   There are termed "diagonal" due to them branching from their parent vessel at acute angles. They ext...
Article

Myocardial injury

Myocardial injury is defined by an elevation of cardiac troponin values above the 99th percentile upper reference limit. It is considered a prerequisite for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction but also an entity in itself and can arise from non-ischaemic or non-cardiac conditions 1,2. Termin...
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Coronary arterial dominance

Coronary arterial dominance is defined by the vessel which gives rise to the posterior descending artery (PDA), which supplies the myocardium of the inferior third of the interventricular septum. Most hearts (80-85%) are right dominant where the PDA is supplied by the right coronary artery (RCA...
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Ventricular arrhythmia

Ventricular arrhythmias are potentially very dangerous cardiac arrhythmias arising from the cardiac ventricles that require immediate attention and medical care and include the following rhythms: premature ventricular complexes ventricular tachycardia torsades de pointes ventricular flutter ...
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Ductus arteriosus

The ductus arteriosum (DA) (or arteriosus) is the thick short conduit for blood to bypass the non-ventilated lungs in the fetus. It is located between and connects the proximal left pulmonary artery and the undersurface of the aortic arch distal to the origin of the last branch of the arch, at t...
Article

Wall motion score index (echocardiography)

Calculation of the left ventricular wall motion score index (WMSI) with transthoracic echocardiography allows the semi-quantification of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Calculation of the LVEF with a WMSI demonstrates stronger agreement with measures obtained by cardiac MRI, the gold ...
Article

Marfan syndrome

Marfan syndrome is a multisystem connective tissue disease caused by a defect in the protein fibrillin 1, encoded by the FBN1 gene. Cardiovascular involvement with aortic root dilatation and dissection is the most feared complication of the disease. Epidemiology The estimated prevalence is aro...

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