Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Fausto J Pinto

Publications and source records attributed to Fausto J Pinto.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

The emerging role of echocardiography in the screening of patients at risk of heart failure.

A large number of patients without symptoms of heart failure (HF) have asymptomatic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction owing to the compensatory mechanisms acting through the autonomic nervous system and neurohormones. In the setting of screening for prevention, one must identify the subgroup of these patients at high risk for symptomatic HF to establish appropriate therapy. As a first step to identify the subgroup of patients at high risk, clinical screening scores and natriuretic peptide measurements are used. Second, the definite diagnosis of asymptomatic LV dysfunction must be confirmed with echocardiography, occasionally with the help of new technologic developments to establish prompt, appropriate treatment to prevent disease progression. Therefore, the screening role of echocardiography is the early identification of patients with structural cardiopathy who are at risk of developing symptomatic HF and detection of those without LV dysfunction (diabetic and hypertensive) whose condition is prone to advance rapidly to structural cardiopathy or to symptomatic HF.

Echocardiography↗
PubMed2004

Echocardiography in left ventricular dysfunction.

Left ventricular (LV) function is an important predictor of cardiac morbidity and mortality. The role of echocardiography in the assessment of LV function is well established and has been expanded over the last few years with the development of new methodologies. Echocardiography can assess LV global and regional function, as well as systolic and diastolic function. It has the ability to measure volumes, including cardiac output, pressures, LV mass, dP/dt. It can also assess regional dysfunction using the wall motion score. However quantitation by standard echo can be limited, due to poor endocardial definition, time-consuming, and reproducibility, lack of accuracy, particularly considering it takes a lot of geometric assumptions. Therefore, new methodologies have been recently developed to increase echo accuracy. These include the introduction of second harmonics, which is becoming a standard in most equipments; the use of contrast echo to improve LV opacification and endocardial border definition; color kinesis, which allows automated segmental motion analysis; tissue Doppler imaging, which can help in the assessment of regional and diastolic function; and more recently the ability to assess strain and strain rate. This last technology has the ability to quantify local myocardial deformation and it has shown to be a potential strong marker of ischemia, as well as a predictor of LV myocardial recovery postrevascularization. In conclusion, echocardiography is widely used to assess LV function. The recent developments of new ultrasound-related technologies have further increased the interest and importance of echocardiography in the assessment of LV function.

Diastole↗