scholarly journals Routine pre-employment echocardiography assessment in young adults: cost and benefits

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Gaafar ◽  
Asmaa Gaafar
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Hypertension ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
The Other ◽  
Community Safety ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Functional Evaluation ◽  
Time Cost ◽  
Work Requirement ◽  
Cardiac Abnormalities ◽  
Conventional Echocardiography

Abstract Background Conventional echocardiography is a safe, available, and accurate tool for cardiac structural and functional evaluation, but it should not cancel clinical assessment and history tacking, and indeed both are complementary. A pre-employment assessment is important for employees and community safety and suitability for a specific work requirement. Results Aiming to assess the value of routine pre-employment echocardiography for the detection of cardiac abnormalities, we examined seven hundred ninety-five persons who were routinely referred to us for pre-employment conventional echocardiography. Only 9 persons had structural cardiac abnormalities (1.3%) and distributed as follows: two had bicuspid aortic valve with isolated aortic regurgitation, one of them had mild AR, and the other had moderate AR. Two cases had mitral valve prolapse, one of them had trivial MR, while the other had a flail anterior leaflet with severe MR. One patient had atrial septal defect 1.5 cm with mild pulmonary hypertension and right-sided chambers dilatation. One patient had dextrocardia (situs inversus totalis) without other cardiac problems. One had moderate pulmonary hypertension and modest right-sided chambers dilation. Two patients had left ventricular hypertrophy. Surprisingly, we did not detect rheumatic valvular heart disease. The money cost of echocardiography tests for those 795 persons was 198,750 Egyptian pounds (LE); their transportation cost was about 19.800LE. The total group time cost of the tests was 265 h, total time lost at the waiting room was 1590 h, total transportation time lose was 2385 h, so the total time cost was about 4000 h. Using psychological stress questionnaire, 33 participants (4.2%) had results suggestive of a low sense of psychological pressure due to echocardiography examination, 221 participants (27.8%) had results suggestive of a moderate feeling of stress, while 541 participants (68%) had results suggestive of a high sense of stress. Conclusion We recommend against routine echocardiography for cardiac assessment in pre-employment assessment and to do it only for persons with abnormal clinical or ECG findings.

scholarly journals Associations between the Severity of the Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome and Echocardiographic Abnormalities in Previously Healthy Outpatients Following Infection with SARS-CoV-2

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 469
Author(s):  
Cristina Tudoran ◽  
Mariana Tudoran ◽  
Gheorghe Nicusor Pop ◽  
Catalina Giurgi-Oncu ◽  
Talida Georgiana Cut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Hypertension ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Acute Infection ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
Ventricular Performance ◽  
Cardiac Abnormalities ◽  
Care Services ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Year

The COVID-19 pandemic affected over 130 million individuals during more than one year. Due to the overload of health-care services, a great number of people were treated as outpatients, many of them subsequently developing post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. Our study was conducted on 150 subjects without a history of cardiovascular diseases, treated as outpatients for a mild/moderate form of COVID-19 4 to 12 weeks prior to study inclusion, and who were diagnosed with post-acute COVID-19 and attended a cardiology evaluation with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for persisting symptoms. We detected various cardiac abnormalities in 38 subjects (25.33%), including pulmonary hypertension (9.33%), impaired left ventricular performance (8.66%), diastolic dysfunction (14%) and/or evidence of pericarditis (10%). We highlighted statistically significant correlations between the intensity of symptoms and quality of life scores with the severity of initial pulmonary injury, the number of weeks since COVID-19 and with TTE parameters characterizing the systolic and diastolic performance and pulmonary hypertension (p < 0.001). (Post-acute COVID-19 is a complex syndrome characterized by various symptoms, the intensity of which seem to be related to the severity and the time elapsed since the acute infection, and with persisting cardiac abnormalities.

Clinical Trials Update

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-118
Author(s):  
Fernando Torres
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Pulmonary Hypertension ◽  
Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction ◽  
Systolic Dysfunction ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction ◽  
Ongoing Research

The Clinical Trials Update highlights new and ongoing research trials that are evaluating therapies for PAH. In this issue, Fernando Torres, MD, examines a study on patients with pulmonary hypertension associated with left ventricular systolic dysfunction.

New Hybrid Method for Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction Assessment from Radionuclide Ventriculography Images

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halima Dziri ◽  
Mohamed Ali Cherni ◽  
Dorra Ben Sellem
Keyword(s):  
Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction ◽  
Left Ventricle ◽  
Ejection Fraction ◽  
Positive Predictive Value ◽  
Roc Curve ◽  
Radionuclide Ventriculography ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
The Other ◽  
Left Ventricular Ejection ◽  
Ventricular Ejection Fraction

Background: In this paper, we propose a new efficient method of radionuclide ventriculography image segmentation to estimate the left ventricular ejection fraction. This parameter is an important prognostic factor for diagnosing abnormal cardiac function. Methods: The proposed method combines the Chan-Vese and the mathematical morphology algorithms. It was applied to diastolic and systolic images obtained from the Nuclear Medicine Department of Salah AZAIEZ Institute.In order to validate our proposed method, we compare the obtained results to those of two methods of the literature. The first one is based on mathematical morphology, while the second one uses the basic Chan-Vese algorithm. To evaluate the quality of segmentation, we compute accuracy, positive predictive value and area under the ROC curve. We also compare the left ventricle ejection fraction estimated by our method to that of the reference given by the software of the gamma-camera and validated by the expert, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, ANOVA test and linear regression. Results and conclusion: Static results show that the proposed method is very efficient in the detection of the left ventricle. The accuracy was 98.60%, higher than that of the other two methods (95.52% and 98.50%). Likewise, the positive predictive value was the highest (86.40% vs. 83.63% 71.82%). The area under the ROC curve was also the most important (0.998% vs. 0.926% 0.919%). On the other hand, Pearson's correlation coefficient was the highest (99% vs. 98% 37%). The correlation was significantly positive (p<0.001).

scholarly journals Risk of cardiac manifestations in adult mitochondrial disease caused by nuclear genetic defects

Open Heart ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e001510
Author(s):  
Albert Zishen Lim ◽  
Daniel M Jones ◽  
Matthew G D Bates ◽  
Andrew M Schaefer ◽  
John O'Sullivan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Disease ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Laboratory Data ◽  
Nuclear Genome ◽  
Nuclear Gene ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
Adult Patients ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Cardiac Abnormalities ◽  
Cardiac Manifestations

ObjectiveRegular cardiac surveillance is advocated for patients with primary mitochondrial DNA disease. However, there is limited information to guide clinical practice in mitochondrial conditions caused by nuclear DNA defects. We sought to determine the frequency and spectrum of cardiac abnormalities identified in adult mitochondrial disease originated from the nuclear genome.MethodsAdult patients with a genetically confirmed mitochondrial disease were identified and followed up at the national clinical service for mitochondrial disease in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (January 2009 to December 2018). Case notes, molecular genetics reports, laboratory data and cardiac investigations, including serial electrocardiograms and echocardiograms, were reviewed.ResultsIn this cohort-based observational study, we included 146 adult patients (92 women) (mean age 53.6±18.7 years, 95% CI 50.6 to 56.7) with a mean follow-up duration of 7.9±5.1 years (95% CI 7.0 to 8.8). Eleven different nuclear genotypes were identified: TWNK, POLG, RRM2B, OPA1, GFER, YARS2, TYMP, ETFDH, SDHA, TRIT1 and AGK. Cardiac abnormalities were detected in 14 patients (9.6%). Seven of these patients (4.8%) had early-onset cardiac manifestations: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy required cardiac transplantation (AGK; n=2/2), left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and bifascicular heart block (GFER; n=2/3) and mild LV dysfunction (GFER; n=1/3, YARS2; n=1/2, TWNK; n=1/41). The remaining seven patients had acquired heart disease most likely related to conventional cardiovascular risk factors and presented later in life (14.6±12.8 vs 55.1±8.9 years, p<0.0001).ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that the risk of cardiac involvement is genotype specific, suggesting that routine cardiac screening is not indicated for most adult patients with nuclear gene-related mitochondrial disease.

Prognostic relevance of sleep apnea syndrome in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Precek ◽  
K Vykoupil ◽  
F Kovacik ◽  
M Hutyra
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Hypertension ◽  
Sleep Apnea ◽  
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension ◽  
General Population ◽  
Arterial Hypertension ◽  
Left Ventricular ◽  
Sleep Study ◽  
Prognostic Relevance ◽  
Obstructive Sleep ◽  
Pulmonary Arterial

Abstract Introduction Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is a group of ventilatory disorders during sleep which includes obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), central sleep apnea (CSA), and sleep related hypoventilation. In patients with SDB, the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) ranges from 17% to 52%. While SDB is prevalent in the general population with recent estimates of 20% to 30%, in those with cardiovascular disease, particularly left ventricular failure, there is a higher reported prevalence of 47%. Aims The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence and prognostic relevance of sleep apnea in a cohort of patients with newly diagnosed pulmonary arterial hypertension (ESC/WHO Group 1 pulmonary hypertension). Methods We evaluated prospectively 76 patients with the pulmonary arterial hypertension (mean age 54±16 years; 45% male). All patients underwent right heart catheterisation, clinical assessments, sleep study, standard laboratory testing and evaluation of subjective sleepiness by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Sleep test was provided with an ApneaLink Plus, consisting of nasal pressure sensor, respiratory effort band, and pulse oximeter worn on the finger. Subjects previously treated for or diagnosed with SDB were excluded from the study. Results Sleep apnea (SA) – defined as apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≥5/h – was found in 59 (77.6%) of the pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients. Mean AHI in the cohort of PAH patients with SA was 26.1±16.6/h. Mean follow-up was 24 months, during which 15 (19.7%) patients died. Characteristics of parameters related to SA in groups of survivors and deceased are in table 1. From the sleep apnea-related parameters, only time with O2Sat &lt;90% – T90 was significantly associated with mortality (AUC 0.856; 95% CI 0.693 – 1.019; p&lt;0.001). Conclusions The presence of sleep apnea in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients is high. The prevalence of sleep apnea is higher in PAH patients than in the general population. The presence of sleep apnea in patients with PAH was not associated with worse prognosis, but noctural hypoxemia (time with O2Sat &lt;90%) was related to poor prognosis. Sleep apnea in patients with PAH should be screened for systematically. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

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