Jin Oh Choi

AIMS: Non-invasive echocardiographic detection of coronary artery disease (CAD), even in left main or three-vessel CAD, usually requires a stress test since regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMA) are not always evident at rest. Strain is a more sensitive parameter of myocardial systolic function and may be abnormal in patients with severe CAD. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated whether peak systolic longitudinal strain (PSLS) of left ventricle using 2D speckle tracking method might be useful f

BACKGROUND: Peak systolic longitudinal strain (PSLS) obtained using the 2D speckle tracking method is a novel indicator of the long-axis function of the left ventricle (LV). We used the 2D strain profile to examine the effect of preload reduction by hemodialysis (HD) on LV PSLS in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). METHOD AND RESULTS: Twenty-nine pairs of echocardiographic evaluations were obtained before and after dialysis. Global LV PSLS was -18.4 +/- 2.9%, at baseline and decreased

Monitoring of patients with NIDCM using both cardiac imaging of the LV structure and by assessing neurohormonal status (NT-proBNP level) at the midterm follow-up might be clinically useful for predicting the long-term clinical prognosis of NIDCM.

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that left ventricular (LV) myocardial strain and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging have prognostic value in patients with heart failure (HF). However, previous studies included patients with various systolic functions. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of LV myocardial strain and LGE on CMR imaging in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with reduced ejection fraction (EF < 40%

Since there were considerable differences between men and women and in the different age groups, and the trends differed significantly between different echo variables, normal echocardiographic cutoff values should be differentially applied based on age and gender.

Background Although current guidelines now define heart failure with midrange ejection fraction ( HF mr EF ) as HF with a left ventricular EF of 40% to 49%, there are limited data on response to guideline-directed medical therapy in patients with HF mr EF . The current study aimed to evaluate the association between β-blocker, renin-angiotensin system blocker ( RASB ), or aldosterone antagonist ( AA ) treatment with clinical outcome in patients with HF mr EF . Methods and Results We performed a

BACKGROUND: Noninvasively measured left ventricular stroke work index (LVSWI) may be an ideal indicator that can provide more relevant information about cardiac performance in severe mitral regurgitation (MR). We sought to correlate the noninvasive LVSWI with invasive measure of LVSWI and validate its clinical usefulness by comparing the noninvasive LVSWI with exercise capacity. METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with severe MR who underwent cardiac catheterization and 61 patients with severe MR who

AIMS: We sought to evaluate associations between baseline sphericity index (SI) and clinical outcome, and changes in SI after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery with or without surgical ventricular reconstruction (SVR) in ischaemic cardiomyopathy patients enrolled in the SVR study (Hypothesis 2) of the Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure (STICH) trial. METHODS AND RESULTS: Among 1000 patients in the STICH SVR study, we evaluated 546 patients (255 randomized to CABG alone and 2

BACKGROUND: A decline in cognition may limit patients' ability to effectively engage in self-care in those with heart failure (HF). However, several studies have shown no difference in self-care between HF patients with and without cognitive impairment. This may indicate that there are more salient factors associated with self-care in HF patients with cognitive impairment compared with those without cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore which factors are related t

Since there were significant differences in Doppler and tissue Doppler echocardiographic variables between men and women and changes according to age were even more considerable in both gender groups, normal Doppler echocardiographic values should be differentially applied based on age and sex.

BACKGROUND: We sought to describe the long-term outcome of individuals in 4 Korean families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) with known mutations. HYPOTHESIS: Long-term clinical features of familial HCM might be characterized according to the mutation causing HCM. METHODS: We performed long-term (mean, 13.1 y) clinical evaluations on 46 subjects from 4 Korean families with different mutations. RESULTS: Myosin light chain 3 gene (MYL3) mutation was associated with late-onset HCM with relati

AIMS: To investigate whether left arterial reservoir strain (LASr) could predict new-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF) in patients with light-chain-type cardiac amyloidosis (ALCA). METHODS AND RESULTS: This study enrolled 427 patients with CA from two tertiary centres between 2005 and 2019. LASr was measured using a vendor-independent analysis programme. The primary outcome was NOAF. A total of 287 patients with ALCA were included [median age 63.0 (56.0-70.0) years, 53.3% male]. The median LASr w

Although pathological confirmation is the gold standard for diagnosis of amyloidosis, there is a need for a relevant imaging modality to identify involved organs and evaluate disease extent. Thus, we prospectively investigated imaging findings of Tc-DPD scintigraphy in AL and ATTR amyloidosis.A total of 21 subjects with pathologically confirmed AL or ATTR amyloidosis were included. Pretreatment whole body Tc-DPD planar scanning and regional SPECT/CT were performed in all subjects. For allegedly