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Objectives: In this work, a new deep learning model for relevant myocardial infarction segmentation from Late Gadolinium Enhancement (LGE)-MRI is proposed. Moreover, our novel segmentation method aims to detect microvascular-obstructed regions accurately. Material and methods: We first segment the anatomical structures, i.e., the left ventricular cavity and the myocardium, to achieve a preliminary segmentation. Then, a shape prior based framework that fuses the 3D U-Net architecture with 3D Autoencoder segmentation framework to constrain the segmentation process of pathological tissues is applied. Results: The proposed network reached outstanding myocardial segmentation compared with the human-level performance with the average Dice score of ‘0.9507’ for myocardium, ‘0.7656’ for scar, and ‘0.8377’ for MVO on the validation set consisting of 16 DE-MRI volumes selected from the training EMIDEC dataset. Conclusion: It is concluded that our approach's extensive validation and comprehensive comparison against existing state-of-the-art deep learning models on three annotated datasets, including healthy and diseased exams, make this proposal a reliable tool to enhance MI diagnosis.

Recovery of heart function during support with a durable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is uncommon. There are few reports of cases that address eliminating the LVAD without the need for a heart transplant. Radical surgical removal of the LVAD may distort the left ventricular cavity and thus affect its function, in addition to the associated risks of the operation. Innovative ways to deactivate the LVAD, relying mainly on vascular plugs implanting in the outflow graft, have been used. Few reports have shown the success of this method. In this case report, we review the story of a young patient with advanced heart failure who underwent LVAD implantation. After six months, there was a dramatic improvement of heart function that enabled successful deactivation of the device.

Device insertion is a common cardiovascular procedure. Devices are implanted into the right heart, acting as a safeguard against systemic thromboembolism. Lead insertion into the left ventricle is rare, but carries dangerous consequences of thromboembolic events. Diagnosis and intervention of an inadvertently placed lead is essential. This is a case of a defibrillator lead inadvertently inserted into the left cavity, discovered 6 years after implantation., Pacemakers are typically used to restore normal heart rhythm to the heart. While typically found screwed in the right ventricle, pacemaker leads may sometimes travel through the walls of the heart and become lodged in the right ventricle. This complication must be resolved immediately due to the high risk of thromboembolism.

BACKGROUND: Aortic stenosis is occasionally associated with subvalvular obstruction and remaining obstruction may at times be found after aortic valve replacement. CASE REPORT: A 69-year-old woman with a history of several episodes of unconsciousness was admitted because of exertional chest oppression. The echocardiography revealed severe aortic stenosis (flow velocity 6.2 m/sec, maximum / mean pressure gradient 152 / 99 mmHg, valve area 0.59 cm2) as well as gradient within the left ventricular cavity from the mid ventricular level (flow velocity 4.5 m/sec, maximum gradient 82 mmHg). Despite aortic valve replacement and concomitant septal myectomy which was thought adequate in reducing subvalvular pressure gradient during surgery, postoperative echocardiography revealed significant residual mid ventricular gradient (flow velocity 4.9 m/sec, maximum gradient 95 mmHg). It was decided to implant dual-chamber pacemaker, which resulted in significant reduction of residual mid ventricular gradient (flow velocity 1.4 m/sec, maximum gradient 8 mmHg). CONCLUSION: Dual-chamber pacing was extremely effective in reducing residual mid ventricular gradient in a patient who underwent aortic valve replacement and concomitant septal myectomy for severe aortic stenosis and subvalvular obstruction.

Background Controversy surrounds the cause of the pressure gradient in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). Left ventricular cavity obliteration (LVCO) was first described as the cause of the gradient but subsequently systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve has been established as the cause. Nevertheless, the two gradients, though different in origin and significance, share similar characteristics. They both have a similar “dagger” profile, are obtained from the cardiac apex, are associated with a hyperdynamic left ventricle, and the gradients are worsened by Valsalva. The distinction has clinical relevance, because treating the intracavitary gradient (ICG) of LVCO as if it were a SAM‐associated gradient associated with HOCM would be inappropriate and possibly harmful. Materials and Methods To clarify the cause and characteristics of the ICG in patients with LVCO in patients without HOCM, we assessed the extent and duration of cavity obliteration, and for differentiation, we compared the spectral profiles with patients with HOCM and severe aortic stenosis (AS). Results Higher ICG is associated with a greater extent and more prolonged apposition of LV walls, and smaller left ventricular cavity size. The spectral profile of patients with AS, HOCM, and LVCO is differentiated by the peak/mean gradient ratios of 2 or less, 2–3, and 3 or greater, respectively, in >90% of patients. Most patients with LVCO without HOCM or severe LVH have an ICG

A 43-year-old female with a history of hypereosinophilia developed acutely decompensated heart failure. Prototypical features of eosinophilic myocarditis, including a distinctive left ventricular mass and severe mitral regurgitation, were identified on a transthoracic echocardiogram. The patient’s eosinophilia was subsequently attributed to Hodgkin lymphoma, and chemotherapy resolved her heart failure symptoms. (Level of Difficulty: Intermediate.), Graphical abstract, A 43-year-old female with a history of hypereosinophilia developed acutely decompensated heart failure. Prototypical features of eosinophilic…

Background Assessment of intracardiac flows and turbulence has acquired rising significance in the past few years, due to the development and introduction of technologies for non-invasive cardiovascular imaging. Recent studies have shown that alterations in intracardiac fluid dynamics can be helpful to identify abnormalities in cardiac function. Purpose This study investigates the additional information provided by the quantitative assessment of intracardiac flow dynamics for the evaluation of patients with aortic stenosis (AS), by using an advanced echocardiography vortex-based approach. Methods Sixty-one patients with severe AS (33 females) and 38 healthy sex- and BSA-matched controls (CTRL) (15 females) were prospectively included and underwent echocardiographic assessment of intracardiac flow dynamics. Echocardiographic measurements were performed on apical three chamber views. The HyperDoppler software adapted to the echo-scanner without contrast injection was used to assess intracardiac vortex properties. The following parameters were obtained: vortex area (VA) (the ratio between the total vortex area and the left ventricular (LV) area); vortex length (VL) (the longitudinal length of the vortex relative to the total LV length; vortex depth (VD) (the distance of the vortex center from the LV base relative to the total LV long axis). Inter-rater variability was measured using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between two independent operators. Results Patients with severe AS (mean gradient: 47,5±13,9 mmHg; aortic valve area: 0.7±0.2 cm2; ejection fraction: 53±7%) had increased LV wall thickness (p0.001, respectively) were significantly higher in AS patients compared with CTRL. Among those who underwent TAVR, we observed a significant difference in the delta values of VA and VL pre-postTAVR in patients with and without significant paravalvular leak (p Conclusions The newly defined VA, VL and VD, quantitative indices of vortical flow, were significantly increased in the LV cavity of patients with severe AS compared to normal subjects. These indices, whose measurement was feasible and reliable, might provide complementary information to standard echocardiography, useful for the further diagnostic and prognostic characterization of the heterogeneous population of patients with severe AS. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Yamaguchi syndrome or apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a unique variant of HCM. It is characterized by localized hypertrophy involving the left ventricular apex rather than the left ventricular septum. This syndrome has been traditionally seen in the Asian population, particularly those of Japanese descent. We present an interesting case of Yamaguchi syndrome seen in a Hispanic male. A 48-year-old Hispanic male presented with epigastric tenderness and was admitted to the hospital for a non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. His diagnostic catheterization revealed no significant coronary artery disease. However, his echocardiogram revealed apical hypertrophy and narrowing of the left ventricular cavity at the apex, consistent with Yamaguchi syndrome. Case reports such as ours serve to help clinicians broaden their differential diagnoses when approaching patients with acute coronary syndrome-like symptoms to include diagnoses such as Yamaguchi syndrome.

Left ventricular lipoma is a rare intracardiac tumour that is usually resected through sternotomy to effectively explore the left ventricular cavity. We introduce a simple technique to expose the left ventricular cavity and resect the intraventricular lipoma using a rolled up flexible ruler through right mini-thoracotomy. Imaging studies and gross and microscopic photography of intraventricular lipoma are presented in this report.

On the basis of a survey of 151 patients, diagnostic criteria for an unfavorable prognosis of mitral valve prolapse were revealed according to echocardiography. Transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, daily Holter ECG monitoring were performed. Repeated echocardiography was performed in 12-18 months. Statistical analysis of the material allowed us to identify criteria for poor prognosis of mitral valve prolapse according to echocardiography: severe mitral regurgitation, mitral valve leaflet thickness in diastole 6 mm or more, dilatation of the left ventricular cavity, dilatation of the left atrial cavity, dilatation of the mitral ring.

The modified Ravitch technique with metal struts and the Nuss operation have been the dominant operative techniques for treatment of pectus excavatum in the previous decades. We present devastating postoperative complications of a 16-year-old boy after the modified Ravitch procedure for a severe deformity utilizing two metal bars. Four months following surgery, one strut was removed after the displacement noted on a regular postoperative examination. Ten days after the strut removal, the patient complained of lower limb pain but the sensations were attributed to physical inactivity. Two months later, after pain intensification, the boy was diagnosed with bilateral arterial and venous lower limb thromboses and subsequently, the migration of the remaining metal strut intracardially with the free end in the left ventricular cavity embedded in massive thrombi. An urgent cardiac procedure was performed and the bar removed. Postoperatively, the boy made a full cardiac recovery but with severe neurological complications and subsequent death. Migration of metal struts is a rare complication and, except in our case, had been dealt with successfully. This case should emphasize more attention to the postoperative follow-up management of such patients.

Biventricular outflow obstruction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an uncommon phenotype. A rare variant is that with isolated right ventricular outflow obstruction without resting or provocable pressure gradients within the left ventricular cavity. We describe a case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with isolated obstruction of right ventricular outflow tract wherein transthoracic echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging were able to detect right ventricular obstruction caused by hypertrophy of septal and parietal muscle bundles of crista supraventricularis. The relevant literature is reviewed.

Aim.To assess the relationship of serum magnesium levels with the structural-functional heart parameters and the arrhythmic syndrome features in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia (UCTD) against the background of drug correction with magnesium.Material and methods.The study included 112 patients with Q-wave MI. Group I (n=22) consisted of patients with MI and UCTD, who, in addition to the standard basic therapy, from 1st day of IM took the magnesium drug. Group II (n=30) — patients with MI and UCTD who received only basic therapy. Group III (n=60) — patients with MI without UCTD who received standard basic therapy. The control group (n=32) — patients without cardiovascular pathology and without UCTD. For assessment we used clinical and phenotypic examinations, echocardiography and daily monitoring of the electrocardiogram, determination of serum magnesium level in the course of MI.Results.We observed a decrease in serum magnesium level in patients with MI in all study groups on the 1st day of MI. Moreover, this tendency persisted for 28 days in the II and III groups. In the first group of patients against the background of the medical correction, an increase in the magnesium level was observed by the 28th day of MI. MI patients with UCTD revealed a more pronounced increase of left ventricular cavity dimensions, a decrease in its pumping ability. We also noted a tendency to a less pronounced increase in the left ventricular mass index compared with the group of patients with MI without UCTD. In addition, the development of MI in patients with UCTD compared with patients without UCTD is characterized by a higher frequency of paroxysmal supraventricular rhythm disturbances and paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia. Magnesium addition to MI treatment in patients with UCTD reduces the frequency of supraventricular arrhythmias.Conclusion.In patients with MI, which occur on the background of UCTD, the initially existing hypomagnesaemia is associated with the development of a disadaptive version of the post-infarction cardiac remodeling. Magnesium use in patients with MI and UCTD helps to reduce the severity of hypomagnesaemia and the frequency of supraventricular cardiac rhythm disorders.

Recovery of heart function during support with durable LVAD is uncommon, and there are few reports of cases that address the issue of eliminating the LVAD without the need for a heart transplant. Radical surgical removal of the LVAD may cause distortion of left ventricular cavity and thus affect its function, in addition to the associated risks of the operation. Innovative ways to de-activate the LVAD, relying mainly on implantation of vascular plugs in the outflow graft have been used. Few reports have shown the success of this method. In this case report, we review the story of a young patient with advanced heart failure, who underwent LVAD implantation, and after 6-month, there was a dramatic improvement of heart function that enabled successful de-activation of the device.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text., Objectives: Changes in right ventricular size and function are frequently observed in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. The majority of patients who receive venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation undergo chest CT and transthoracic echocardiography. The aims of this study were to compare the use of CT and transthoracic echocardiography to evaluate the right ventricular function and to determine the prevalence of acute cor pulmonale in this patient population. Design: Observational, retrospective, single-center, cohort study. Setting: Severe respiratory failure and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation center. Patients: About 107 patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome managed with venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Interventions: Chest CT to evaluate right ventricular size and transthoracic echocardiography to evaluate right ventricular size and function. Measurements and Main Results: All 107 patients had a qualitative assessment of right ventricular size and function on transthoracic echocardiography. Quantitative measurements were available in 54 patients (50%) who underwent transthoracic echocardiography and in 107 of patients (100%) who received CT. Right ventricular dilatation was defined as a right ventricle end-diastolic diameter greater than left ventricular end-diastolic diameter upon visual assessment or an right ventricle end-diastolic diameter/left ventricular end-diastolic diameter and/or right ventricle cavity area/left ventricular cavity area of greater than 0.9. Right ventricle systolic function was visually estimated as being normal or impaired (visual right ventricular systolic impairment). The right ventricle was found to be dilated in 38/107 patients (36%) and in 58/107 patients (54%), using transthoracic echocardiography or CT right ventricle end-diastolic diameter/left ventricular end-diastolic diameter, respectively. When the CT right ventricle cavity/left ventricular cavity area criterion was used, the right ventricle was dilated in 19/107 patients (18%). About 33/107 patients (31%) exhibited visual right ventricular systolic impairment. Transthoracic echocardiography right ventricle end-diastolic diameter/left ventricular end-diastolic diameter showed good agreement with CT right ventricle cavity/left ventricular cavity area (R2 = 0.57; p < 0.01). A CT right ventricle cavity/left ventricular cavity area greater than 0.9 provided the optimal cutoff for acute cor pulmonale on transthoracic echocardiography with an AUC of 0.78. Acute cor pulmonale was defined by the presence of a right ventricle “D-shape” and quantitative right ventricle dilatation on transthoracic echocardiography or a right ventricle cavity/left ventricular cavity area greater than 0.9 on CT. A diagnosis of acute cor pulmonale was made in 9/54 (14% patients) on transthoracic echocardiography and in 19/107 (18%) on CT. Conclusions: Changes in right ventricular size and function are common in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation with up to 18% showing imaging evidence of acute cor pulmonale. A CT right ventricular cavity /left ventricular cavity area greater than 0.9 is indicative of impaired right ventricular systolic function.

In this paper, we propose a new deep learning framework for an automatic myocardial infarction evaluation from clinical information and delayed enhancement-MRI (DE-MRI). The proposed framework addresses two tasks. The first task is automatic detection of myocardial contours, the infarcted area, the no-reflow area, and the left ventricular cavity from a short-axis DE-MRI series. It employs two segmentation neural networks. The first network is used to segment the anatomical structures such as the myocardium and left ventricular cavity. The second network is used to segment the pathological areas such as myocardial infarction, myocardial no-reflow, and normal myocardial region. The segmented myocardium region from the first network is further used to refine the second network’s pathological segmentation results. The second task is to automatically classify a given case into normal or pathological from clinical information with or without DE-MRI. A cascaded support vector machine (SVM) is employed to classify a given case from its associated clinical information. The segmented pathological areas from DE-MRI are also used for the classification task. We evaluated our method on the 2020 EMIDEC MICCAI challenge dataset. It yielded an average Dice index of 0.93 and 0.84, respectively, for the left ventricular cavity and the myocardium. The classification from using only clinical information yielded 80% accuracy over five-fold cross-validation. Using the DE-MRI, our method can classify the cases with 93.3% accuracy. These experimental results reveal that the proposed method can automatically evaluate the myocardial infarction.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Austrian Science Fund (FWF – identification number: KLI-818B). Background Secondary mitral regurgitation in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (sMR) results from distortion of the physiologic cardiac architecture. Underlying morphological components might account for the clinical impact of sMR but have not yet been assessed systematically or related to outcome. Objectives To investigate the morphologic features of sMR and their prognostic impact on outcome. Methods This study used morphomic network profiling in patients with stable heart failure under guideline directed medical therapy. Principal component analysis was applied and three factors extracted, of which Factor 1 and 2 were strongly related to sMR and outcome. Based on the factors, four morphologically distinct clusters were derived. Results Morphomic data from 383 patients were profiled. Factor 1 consists of high loadings of left atrial morphological information, factor 2 high loadings of left ventricular morphology. Cluster analysis revealed four morphologically distinct phenotypes. sMR was most prominent in cluster 3 and 4. The morphological difference was left ventricular size (enddiastolic volume 188ml (160-224) versus 315ml (264-408), P Conclusions These results challenge the current perception of sMR resulting exclusively from global or local LV remodeling and, supported by previous concepts, emphasize the role of the atrial component as a pathophysiologic mechanism. The association of sMR with mortality cannot be purely attributed to cardiac morphology alone. Additionally, other key aspects such as balance of closing and tethering forces contribute to mitral valve closure. The association of sMR with mortality mainly driven by the small LV cavity phenotype refines the prognostic impact of sMR in relation to the underlying anatomic variability. Abstract Figure. Survival for clusters and adj. sMR

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Shear wave (SW) imaging, based on high frame rate (HFR) echocardiography, is a new non-invasive approach for assessing myocardial stiffness. Operating myocardial stiffness increases with increasing wall stress, therefore measured myocardial stiffness does not necessarily reflect intrinsic myocardial properties only, but can be influenced by cavity pressure and chamber geometry. Purpose To explore the relationship between local myocardial geometry, cavity pressure and pathological substrate with SW velocity and to determine to which extent the above mentioned factors influence SW velocity. Methods We included 26 healthy controls (55 ± 14 years, 77 % male) and 61 patients with thick heart (24 patients with cardiac amyloidosis (AML) [70 ± 9 years, 52 % male], 37 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) [54 ± 14 years, 78 % male]). Left ventricular (LV) parasternal long axis views were acquired with an experimental HFR scanner at 1142 ± 282 frames per seconds. Propagation velocity of the SW occurring after mitral valve closure in the interventricular septum (IVS) served as measure of myocardial stiffness (Figure A). While conventional echocardiographic measurements were used to evaluate local myocardial geometry (LV end-diastolic diameter [EDD], IVS thickness) and LV cavity pressure (LV diastolic pressure-estimated by E/e` and LV systolic pressure-estimated by systolic blood pressure and potential LV outflow gradient in HCM). Results LV cavity pressure and local geometry differed significantly between controls and patients (p Conclusions Our study demonstrated that SW velocity is related to both pathological substrate and local geometry and LV pressures. Additionally, our results suggest that variations in myocardial tissue properties had the most influence on SW velocity, while LV pressure and local geometry played a minor role. Therefore, the changes in SW velocity reflect predominantly tissue properties that are altered by underlining disease rather than cavity pressure and morphological abnormalities. Thus, SW elastography could provide useful novel diagnostic information in the evaluation of cardiomyopathies. Abstract Figure A, B, C, D

Left ventricular false tendons are cord like structures that traverse the left ventricular cavity. They are found in approximately half of the human hearts examined at autopsy and have no clinical or prognostic significance. They have been well described and usually pose no diagnostic dilemma. We present the first case of a partially ruptured false tendon mimicking mural vegetation in an 80-year-old male with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase Escherichia coli bacteremia.

Aim Mouse models of sudden cardiac arrest are limited by challenges with surgical technique and obtaining reliable venous access. To overcome this limitation, we sought to develop a simplified method in the mouse that uses ultrasound-guided injection of potassium chloride directly into the heart. Methods Potassium chloride was delivered directly into the left ventricular cavity under ultrasound guidance in intubated mice, resulting in immediate asystole. Mice were resuscitated with injection of epinephrine and manual chest compressions and evaluated for survival, body temperature, cardiac function, kidney damage, and diffuse tissue injury. Results The direct injection sudden cardiac arrest model causes rapid asystole with high surgical survival rates and short surgical duration. Sudden cardiac arrest mice with 8-min of asystole have significant cardiac dysfunction at 24 hours and high lethality within the first seven days, where after cardiac function begins to improve. Sudden cardiac arrest mice have secondary organ damage, including significant kidney injury but no significant change to neurologic function. Conclusions Ultrasound-guided direct injection of potassium chloride allows for rapid and reliable cardiac arrest in the mouse that mirrors human pathology without the need for intravenous access. This technique will improve investigators’ ability to study the mechanisms underlying post-arrest changes in a mouse model.