Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge Julia Grapsa, MD, PhD; Ilias D. Koutsogeorgis, MD; Petros Nihoyannopoulos, MD; and Ferande Peters, MD, who were the authors of this chapter in the previous edition. The percutaneous mitral edge-to-edge repair is based on the…
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an inflammatory disorder that occurs after a throat infection with group A β-hemolytic streptococcus infection (GAS). Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a chronic disorder in which the heart valves are damaged after an episode of…
Spectrum of Cardioembolism The heart and the aorta are the sources of cardioembolism to any organ. Major clinical presentations involve either acute neurologic dysfunction—transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke—or peripheral vascular disease (e.g., acute limb ischemia, splenic or renal infarcts).…
Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge Susan Nord and Jennifer Pfaff for their editorial assistance and Brian Miller and Brian Schurrer for their help with the figures. We also thank Drs. Maria C. Todaro, Concetta Zito, and Scipione Carerj for their…
Infiltrative cardiomyopathies (ICMOs) are a form of restrictive cardiomyopathy that may be caused by either hereditary or acquired diseases. They are characterized by the deposition of abnormal substances within the myocardium that cause stiffening of the left ventricular (LV) walls.…
Left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) is characterized by the presence of prominent left ventricular (LV) trabeculae with adjacent deep intertrabecular recesses overlying a thin compacted layer of myocardium. There are several controversies relating to LVNC, including whether LVNC is a genetic…
In the past two decades, two-dimensional speckle-tracking global longitudinal strain (GLS) has become one of the most important new echocardiographic parameters for the assessment of cardiac diseases. Indeed, it has been widely demonstrated that GLS provides reliable and early information…
General Concepts The word “strain,” which in everyday language means “stretching,” in echocardiography indicates a measure of tissue deformation; the “strain rate” is the rate at which the deformation occurs. Considering a given one-dimensional object under either lengthening or shortening…