Scoring of cardiac damage evaluated by echocardiography predicts prognosis of patients with severe aortic stenosis undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation: analysis of the LAPLACE-TAVI registry.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has become available for elderly patients with aortic stenosis (AS). However, no markers have been established to predict prognosis after TAVI. Cardiac damage caused by AS progresses sequentially in most cases through the left ventricle, left atrium, and right ventricle.

HELT-ES score is a promising marker for predicting left atrial appendage dysfunction in patients with ischemic stroke.

The HELT-ES score, replacing diabetes mellitus and heart failure and adding extreme elderly (≥ 85 years), type of atrial fibrillation (AF), and low body mass index (BMI), has been proposed as a new measure for stratifying the risk of stroke in Japanese patients with AF. However, the association of the HELT-ES score with left atrial appendage (LAA) dysfunction in patients with ischemic stroke remains unclear. We performed transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography and evaluated the HELT-ES scores in 593 patients with acute ischemic stroke and 296 patients without acute ischemic stroke as the control group.

Recent Trends in Achievement Rates and Time Required for Left Ventricular Reverse Remodeling in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.

Background: Left ventricular reverse remodeling (LVRR) is associated with a good prognosis in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), so in this study we examined the achievement rates of LVRR, the time taken to LVRR and the factors associated with LVRR in recent cases of DCM.

Methods And Results: We enrolled 121 patients with DCM. LVRR was defined as a left ventricular ejection fraction ≥40% at follow-up with a ≥10% improvement.

Right atrial strain measured by 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography is associated with poor cardiac outcomes in patients with heart failure.

Right heart failure (HF) is a poor prognostic factor in patients with HF. The right atrial (RA) function has attracted less attention than the right ventricular (RV) function. The association of RA reservoir strain evaluated by 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography (2DSTE) with clinical outcomes in patients with HF remains unclear.

Left atrial strain time integral evaluated by two-dimensional speckle tracking predicts left atrial appendage dysfunction in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Cardioembolic stroke is a serious disease with poor prognosis, whose main embolic source is the left atrial appendage (LAA). Left atrial (LA) strain evaluated by the two-dimensional (2D) speckle tracking technique has been proposed. However, the commonly used peak LA strain reflects only LA reservoir function.

A case of a transcatheter valve-in-valve implantation using balloon expandable valve for failed SOLO SMART stentless bioprosthetic valve.

Unlabelled: A 74-year-old man who had undergone surgical aortic valve replacement with the SOLO SMART stentless bioprosthetic valve 25 mm (LivaNova PLC, London, UK) and mitral valve replacement with MOSAIC 29 mm (Medtronic, Minneapolis, USA) 4 years previously was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and transferred to our hospital. Echocardiography revealed severe aortic regurgitation caused by degraded bioprosthetic valve. He required continuous dobutamine administration to maintain hemodynamics.