Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is usually considered to be a compen- satory adjustment of heart muscle to an inreased work load. LVH develops in the course of valvular or congenital heart disease, or when part of the myocardium is damaged by long-standing ischemia or infarction. In the hypertrophied heart the muscle fibers increase in size, not in number. The fibers are found to contain a larger number of myofibrils and the cell organelles are larger. From epidemiologic studies it is known that even mild LVH is associated with myocardial ischemia, ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden...

The extension of conventional M-mode to two-dimensional echocardiography has been a major advance for the evaluation and management of cardiac disease. Their combined use is optimal for a comprehensive analysis of anatomy and structure function and thus best serving the patient. This book critically examines the validity of the applications of these ultra sound techniques in common cardiac disorders. In addition to the clinical value of contrast and Doppler echocardiography, several chapters are devoted to problems related to quantitation of both M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiography....

Why a book on contrast echocardiography? Over the past dozen years enough experience has accumulated to warrant a more extensive treatment of this method. Furthermore, there are new developments that suggest increased clinical utility for contrast echocardiography in the future. This book aims to summarize the "state of the art" for those interested in echocardiography - presumably mainly cardiologists, but here and there those of a more technical bent will find useful information as well. We feel that a more basic understanding of microbubble dynamics is necessary to advance research for...

Hypertension is a major world-wide health problem. With high blood pressure there is a greater risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney disease and renal failure. Far too few people realize what the risks are and what can be done to prevent these risks even in the countries where pro- grams in hypertension research are active and the full significance of hyper- tension is best understood. Some studies of the known hypertensive popu- lation indicate that one-half or less are receiving adequate treatment, and, of those on therapy, only half have their high blood pressure...

In the denervated state the mammalian heart, both in vivo and in vitro, is excited at very regular intervals, the coefficient of variance of the interbeat intervals not exceeding 2%. The pacemaker that is the source of this regular ex citation is localised normally within the sinus node (" sino-atrial node " node of Keith and Flack), a most intriguing small piece of tissue in the caval corner of the right atrium. A small portion of this node containing a group of probably only a few thousands of cells fires spontaneously, that means without any exter nal influence to trigger their activity....

With the beginning of the 1980's it was becoming increasingly evident that the lack of approval of new cardiovascular agents for use by clinicians in the United States for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders was becoming a problem. Patients requiring medical therapy for hypertension, angina pectoris, arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, and vasospastic disorders of the coronary arteries could receive in the United States only a small number of the drugs available to physicians in the rest of the world. In fact, as the 1980's began, there was only one available beta blocking agent...

Recent technological developments have brought long-term ambulatory electro- cardiography to the front of clinical cardiology. Its application for solving clinical problems potentially related to cardiac arrhythmias is rapidly increasing. In the meantime, the method has found widespread use in the identification of patients at risk for cardiac death as well as in the assessment of therapeutic interventions. It was the purpose of this symposium to bring together an international group of authorities in order both to provide an overall view of the field and to discuss critically the value of...

This volume contains most of the invited lectures presented at the second "Interna- tional Symposium on the Evaluation of Cardiac Dynamics by Ultrasound" which was held on May 27-28, 1982, in Hamburg. Main topics of the symposium dealt with new echocardiographic technologies such as the transesophageal technique and digital image processing of echocardio- grams, as well as with latest clinical and experimental results in the fields of contrast and Doppler echocardiography, tissue characterization and analysis of left ventricular function. We are greatly indebted to all participants who kept a...

This book represents tangible results of the Institute of Applied Physiology and Medicine's objectives of bringing into clinical application the concepts and results of bioengineers and physiologists. lt has grown out of our experience in development of original Doppler diagnostic instrumentation and its application to more than 6,000 patients in non-invasive diagnosis of the extracranial cerebrovascular circulation. It gath- ers together bioengineering and physiological concepts which were initially developed for a graduate course for physicians and specialized medical tech- nicians. lt...

Thus, there are now several chronic canine myocardial infarction- ventricular tachyarrhythmia models which are available for the evaluation of new antiarrhythmic drugs (Table I). The available models fulfill many, but not all of the requirements for an ideal chronic arrhythmia model (Table 11). The sustained arrhythmias initiated in these models using programmed pacing presumably have the same localized reentrant mechanism that characterizes chronic human myocardial infarction and chronic coronary 26 artery disease. However, these models are not suitable for determining whether a new drug...