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Purpose The purpose of this study was to test whether the fractional change in the endocardial border length between end-diastole and end-systole as manually traced in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) measurement using the biplane method of disks (MOD) was consistent with the global longitudinal strain derived from speckle-tracking echocardiography. Methods For 105 patients who underwent echocardiography, two- and four-chamber images with manually traced endocardial lines for LVEF measurement by MOD were stored. LV endocardial lengths at end-diastole and at end-systole were measured on both images to calculate the fractional length changes, which were averaged (GLS(MOD)). Speckle-tracking analysis was performed to measure global longitudinal strains in the apical two- and four-chamber and long-axis images, and the three values were averaged (GLS(STE)) according to the ASE and EACVI guidelines. Results There was no significant difference between GLS(MOD) and GLS(STE). GLS(MOD) correlated well with GLS(STE) (r = 0.81, p < 0.001), and there was no fixed bias in the Bland-Altman analysis. The intraclass correlations for the intra- and inter-observer comparisons for GLS(STE) were excellent, and those for GLS(MOD) were adequate. Conclusion The fractional LV endocardial border length change, GLS(MOD), showed sufficient agreement with GLS(STE) to justify its use as a substitute for the STE-derived global longitudinal strain.

Background and purpose Flow velocity oscillation rate (FVOR) of the renal interlobar vein has been reported to be decreased in patients with urinary obstruction or diabetic nephropathy, and increased in those with hypertension during pregnancy. To clarify the clinical role of the renal interlobar venous FVOR, we investigated the flow velocity patterns of the renal vessels in patients with hypertension (HT) and/or diabetes (DM). Methods and results Pulsed-wave Doppler sonography was performed in 34 patients: 15 with HT, 10 with DM, and nine with both HT and DM (HT-DM). Each FVOR of the right and left interlobar veins was closely and positively correlated with the ipsilateral interlobar arterial resistive index (RI), especially in the HT group, but not with the estimated glomerular filtration rate. The right interlobar venous FVOR was decreased in the DM and HT-DM groups compared to the HT group. Conclusion The renal interlobar venous FVOR is strongly influenced by the arterial RI in HT patients, and is reduced in DM patients without an obvious relationship with diabetic nephropathy. These findings should be noted for the clinical application of renal interlobar venous flow analysis.

In our new echocardiographic method, pulmonary regurgitant velocity immediately before right atrial (RA) contraction is used to estimate pulmonary artery diastolic pressure (PADP) and mean PA wedge pressure (MPAWP). Our aim here was to compare the usefulness of this new method with that of the conventional method, which uses pulmonary regurgitant velocity at end diastole. We studied 55 consecutive patients who underwent echocardiography and right-sided heart catheterization. The pulmonary regurgitant velocities just before RA contraction and at end diastole were measured to obtain echocardiographic estimates of PADP (EPADP preA and EPADP ED , respectively) by adding the pressure gradients to the echocardiographically estimated RA pressure. Compared with EPADP ED , EPADP preA correlated better with PADP ( r = 0.87) and MPAWP ( r = 0.80), and direct fixed biases were detected for EPADP ED but not for EPADP preA . The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve distinguishing patients with MPAWP ≥18 mm Hg was greater for EPADP preA (0.97) than for E / e ′ (0.94) and E / A (0.83). EPADP preA is thus useful in estimating PADP and MPAWP in patients with heart disease.

We analyzed the waveform of systolic strain and strain-rate curves to find a characteristic left ventricular (LV) myocardial contraction pattern in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), and evaluated the utility of these parameters for the differentiation of HCM and LV hypertrophy secondary to hypertension (HT). From global strain and strain-rate curves in the longitudinal and circumferential directions, the time from mitral valve closure to the peak strains (T-LS and T-CS, respectively) and the peak systolic strain rates (T-LSSR and T-CSSR, respectively) were measured in 34 patients with HCM, 30 patients with HT, and 25 control subjects. The systolic strain-rate waveform was classified into 3 patterns ("V", "W", and "√" pattern). In the HCM group, T-LS was prolonged, but T-LSSR was shortened; consequently, T-LSSR/T-LS ratio was distinctly lower than in the HT and control groups. The "√" pattern of longitudinal strain-rate waveform was more frequently seen in the HCM group (74 %) than in the control (4 %) and HT (20 %) groups. Similar but less distinct results were obtained in the circumferential direction. To differentiate HCM from HT, the sensitivity and specificity of the T-LSSR/T-LS ratio

Background The neutrophil alkaline phosphatase (NAP) score is a valuable test for the diagnosis of myeloproliferative neoplasms, but it has still manually rated. Therefore, we developed a semi-automatic rating method using Photoshop® and Image-J, called NAP-PS-IJ. Methods Neutrophil alkaline phosphatase staining was conducted with Tomonaga's method to films of peripheral blood taken from three healthy volunteers. At least 30 neutrophils with NAP scores from 0 to 5+ were observed and taken their images. From which the outer part of neutrophil was removed away with Image-J. These were binarized with two different procedures (P1 and P2) using Photoshop®. NAP-positive area (NAP-PA) and granule (NAP-PGC) were measured and counted with Image-J. Results The NAP-PA in images binarized with P1 significantly (P < 0.05) differed between images with NAP scores from 0 to 3+ (group 1) and those from 4+ to 5+ (group 2). The original images in group 1 were binarized with P2. NAP-PGC of them significantly (P < 0.05) differed among all four NAP score groups. The mean NAP-PGC with NAP-PS-IJ indicated a good correlation (r = 0.92, P < 0.001) to results by human examiners. Conclusions The sensitivity and specificity of NAP-PS-IJ were 60% and 92%, which might be considered as a prototypic method for the full-automatic rating NAP score.

This study is performed to investigate risk factors of hypotension in response to elective carotid stenting. Forty-four lesions of 40 consecutive patients (mean age 70.4 ± 8.2 years) were retrospectively analyzed. Easy Wall stent was applied in 15 lesions and SMART stent in 29 lesions. We investigated correlations between the occurrence rate of postoperative hypotension below 90 mmHg and persisting over three hours and findings of preoperative angiograms, ultrasonograms and clinical characteristics. Postprocedural hypotension occurred in 19 patients (47.5%) and medical treatment (intravenous administration of catecholamines) was required in eleven patients (27.5%). Although there was no permanent neurological deficits related with postprocedural hypotension, transient neurological deficits were found in three patients. Risk factors of prolonged postprocedural hypotension were statistically analyzed. On angiographic characteristics; 1) distance between the carotid bifurcation and the lesion with maximum stenosis (≦10 mm vs. >10 mm: p = 0.031), 2) type of stenosis (eccentric vs. concentric: p = 0.014) On ultrasonographic characteristics; 1) calcifications at the carotid bifurcation (present vs. absent: p