The mechanics of congenital heart disease: from a morphological trait to the functional echocardiographic evaluation.

Advances in pediatric cardiac surgery have resulted in a recent growing epidemic of children and young adults with congenital heart diseases (CHDs). In these patients, congenital defects themselves, surgical operations and remaining lesions may alter cardiac anatomy and impact the mechanical performance of both ventricles. Cardiac function significantly influences outcomes in CHDs, necessitating regular patient follow-up to detect clinical changes and relevant risk factors. Echocardiography remains the primary imaging method for CHDs, but clinicians must understand patients' unique anatomies as different CHDs exhibit distinct anatomical characteristics affecting cardiac mechanics. Additionally, the use of myocardial deformation imaging and 3D echocardiography has gained popularity for enhanced assessment of cardiac function and anatomy. This paper discusses the role of echocardiography in evaluating cardiac mechanics in most significant CHDs, particularly its ability to accommodate and interpret the inherent anatomical substrate in these conditions.

Epicardial fat volume assessed with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

PURPOSE: The aims of our study were to investigate with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) the role of Epicardial Fat Volume (EFV) and distribution in patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC). Moreover, we explored EFV in patients with TTC and related this to comorbidities, cardiac biomarkers, and cardiac function. METHODS: This retrospective study performed CMR scans in 30 consecutive TTC patients and 20 healthy controls. The absolute amount of EFV was quantified in consecutive short-axis cine stacks through the modified Simpson's rule. In addition, the left atrio-ventricular groove (LV) and right ventricle (RV) Epicardial Fat Thickness (EFT) were measured as well. Besides epicardial fat, LV myocardial strain parameters and T2 mapping measurements were obtained. RESULTS: TTC patients and controls were of comparable age, sex, and body mass index. Compared to healthy controls, patients with TTC demonstrated a significantly increased EFV, epicardial fat mass, and EFV indexed for body 7surface area (p = 0.005; p = 0.003; p = 0.008; respectively). In a multiple regression model including age, sex, BMI, atrial fibrillation, and dyslipidemia, TTC remained an independent association with EFV (p = 0.008). Global T2 mapping and Global longitudinal strain in patients with TTC were correlated with EFV (r = 0.63, p = 0.001, and r = 0.44, p = 0.02, respectively). CONCLUSION: Patients with TTC have increased EFV compared to healthy controls, despite a similar body mass index. The amount of epicardial fat was associated with CMR markers of myocardial inflammation and subclinical contractile dysfunction.

Machine learning approach in diagnosing Takotsubo cardiomyopathy: The role of the combined evaluation of atrial and ventricular strain, and parametric mapping.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) is a key diagnostic tool in the differential diagnosis between non-ischemic cause of cardiac chest pain. Some patients are not eligible for a gadolinium contrast-enhanced CMR; in this scenario, the diagnosis remains challenging without invasive examination. Our purpose was to derive a machine learning model integrating some non-contrast CMR parameters and demographic factors to identify Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC) in subjects with cardiac chest pain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Three groups of patients were retrospectively studied: TTC, acute myocarditis, and healthy controls. Global and regional left ventricular longitudinal, circumferential, and radial strain (RS) analysis included were assessed. Reservoir, conduit, and booster bi-atrial functions were evaluated by tissue-tracking. Parametric mapping values were also assessed in all the patients. Five different tree-based ensemble learning algorithms were tested concerning their ability in recognizing TTC in a fully cross-validated framework. RESULTS: The CMR-based machine learning (ML) ensemble model, by using the Extremely Randomized Trees algorithm with Elastic Net feature selection, showed a sensitivity of 92% (95% CI 78-100), specificity of 86% (95% CI 80-92) and area under the ROC of 0.94 (95% CI 0.90-0.99) in diagnosing TTC. Among non-contrast CMR parameters, the Shapley additive explanations analysis revealed that left atrial (LA) strain and strain rate were the top imaging markers in identifying TTC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated that using a tree-based ensemble learning algorithm on non-contrast CMR parameters and demographic factors enables the identification of subjects with TTC with good diagnostic accuracy. TRANSLATIONAL OUTLOOK: Our results suggest that non-contrast CMR features can be implemented in a ML model to accurately identify TTC subjects. This model could be a valuable tool for aiding in the diagnosis of subjects with a contraindication to the contrast media. Furthermore, the left atrial conduit strain and strain rate were imaging markers that had a strong impact on TTC identification. Further prospective and longitudinal studies are needed to validate these findings and assess predictive performance in different cohorts, such as those with different ethnicities, and social backgrounds and undergoing different treatments.

The emerging role of atrial strain assessed by cardiac MRI in different cardiovascular settings: an up-to-date review.

The left atrium (LA) has a crucial function in maintaining left ventricular filling, which is responsible for about one-third of all cardiac filling. A growing body of evidence shows that LA is involved in several cardiovascular diseases from a clinical and prognostic standpoint. LA enlargement has been recognized as a predictor of the outcomes of many diseases. However, LA enlargement itself does not explain the whole LA's function during the cardiac cycle. For this reason, the recently proposed assessment of atrial strain at advanced cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) enables the usual limitations of the sole LA volumetric measurement to be overcome. Moreover, the left atrial strain impairment might allow several cardiovascular diseases to be detected at an earlier stage. While traditional CMR has a central role in assessing LA volume and, through cine sequences, a marginal role in evaluating LA function, feature tracking at advanced CMR (CMR-FT) has been increasingly confirmed as a feasible and reproducible technique for assessing LA function through strain. In comparison to atrial function evaluations via speckle tracking echocardiography, CMR-FT has a higher spatial resolution, larger field of view, and better reproducibility. In this literature review on atrial strain analysis, we describe the strengths, limitations, recent applications, and promising developments of studying atrial function using CMR-FT in clinical practice. KEY POINTS: • The left atrium has a crucial function in maintaining left ventricular filling; left atrial size has been recognized as a predictor of the outcomes of many diseases. • Left atrial strain has been confirmed as a marker of atrial functional status and demonstrated to be a sensitive tool in the subclinical phase of a disease. • A comprehensive evaluation of the three phases of atrial function by CMR-FT demonstrates an impairment before the onset of atrial enlargement, thus helping clinicians in their decision-making and improving patient outcomes.

Could CMR Tissue-Tracking and Parametric Mapping Distinguish Between Takotsubo Syndrome and Acute Myocarditis? A Pilot Study.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: Takotsubo syndrome (TS) is a transient and often misdiagnosed form of left ventricular dysfunction. Acute myocarditis (AM) is usually included in TS differential diagnosis. The aim of this study is to assess the role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging coupled with tissue-tracking technique (CMR-TT) and parametric mappings analysis in discriminating between TS and AM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled three groups: patients with TS (n = 12), patients with AM (n = 14), and 10 healthy controls. All the patients had a comprehensive CMR examination, including the assessment of global and segmental longitudinal strain, circumferential strain, radial strain (RS), and parametric mapping. RESULTS: The analysis of variance was used to compare the different groups. In TS patients, basal RS, global T1 mapping, global T2 mapping, mid T2 mapping, apical T1 and T2 mapping were statistically significantly different compared with the other groups. MANCOVA analysis confirmed that the association between myocardial strain data and parametric mapping was independent on age and sex. Apical T1 and T2 mapping proved to have a good performance in differentiating TS from AM (area under the curves of 0.908 and 0.879, respectively). CONCLUSION: Basal RS and apical tissue mapping analysis are the most advanced CMR-derived parameters in making a differential diagnosis between TS and AM.

Atrial Strain by Feature-Tracking Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy. Features, Feasibility, and Reproducibility.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there may be a bi-atrial dysfunction in Takotsubo syndrome (TS) during the transient course of the disease, using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging feature tracking (CMR-FT) in analyzing bi-atrial strain. METHOD: Eighteen TS patients and 13 healthy controls were studied. Reservoir, conduit, and booster bi-atrial functions were analyzed by CMR-FT. The correlation between LA and RA strain parameters was assessed. Intra- and inter-observer reproducibility was evaluated for all strain and strain rate (SR) parameters using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: Atrial strain were feasible in all patients and controls. Takotsubo patients showed an impaired LA Reservoir strain (∊s), LA Reservoir strain rate (SRs), LA and RA Conduit strain(∊e), LA and RA conduit strain rate (SRe) in comparison with controls (P < 0.001 for all of them), while no differences were found as to LA and RA booster deformation parameters (∊a and SRa). Analysis of correlation showed that LA ∊s, SRs, ∊e, and SRe were positively correlated with corresponding RA strain measurements (P < 0.001, r = 0.61 and P = 0,03, r = 0,54, respectively). Reproducibility was good to excellent for all atrial strain and strain rate parameters (ICCs ranging from 0,50 to 0,96). CONCLUSION: Atrial strain analysis using CMR-FT may be a useful tool to reveal new pathophysiological insights in Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Additional studies, with a larger number of patients, are needed to confirm the possible role of these advanced CMR tools in characterizing TS patients.

Potential Role of Artificial Intelligence in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Can It Help Clinicians in Making a Diagnosis?

In the era of modern medicine, artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing field of interest which is experiencing a steady development. Several applications of AI have been applied to various aspects of cardiac magnetic resonance to assist clinicians and engineers in reducing the costs of exams and, at the same time, to improve image acquisition and reconstruction, thus simplifying their analysis, interpretation, and decision-making process as well. In fact, the role of AI and machine learning in cardiovascular imaging relies on evaluating images more quickly, improving their quality, nulling intraobserver and interobserver variability in their interpretation, upgrading the understanding of the stage of the disease, and providing with a personalized approach to cardiovascular care. In addition, AI algorithm could be directed toward workflow management. This article presents an overview of the existing AI literature in cardiac magnetic resonance, with its strengths and limitations, recent applications, and promising developments. We conclude that AI is very likely be used in all the various process of diagnosis routine mode for cardiac care of patients.

Cardiac Involvement in COVID-19-Assessment with Echocardiography and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), started at the beginning of December 2019, in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Since then, the disease has been spreading quickly all over the world with dramatic consequences for global health. That is the reason why it was declared pandemic since March 11th, 2020. The clinical presentation of SARS-CoV-2 is quite variable. Respiratory symptoms dominate its clinical manifestations, but based on current observations, it can significantly affect the heart as well, thus leading to myocardial injury. Imaging plays a key role in the cardiovascular management of these patients, with the aim of improving their outcomes. This review article provides an overview as to strengths and weaknesses of cardiac magnetic resonance compared with echocardiography in the difficult management of these patients.

Early diagnosis of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity by cardiac MRI.

Survival rate in cancer patients has improved over the course of the years. In cancer survivors, cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of mortality and early detection and serial monitoring of cardiotoxicity are key factors towards the improvement of patients' outcomes. This review article will provide an overview of the existing literature regarding the tools that MRI can offer in the early diagnosis of myocardial damage.

Cardiac imaging in congenital heart disease during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic: recommendations from the Working Group on Congenital Heart Disease of the Italian Society of Cardiology.

: The recent outbreak of 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 is having major repercussions on healthcare services provision in Italy and worldwide. Data suggest the virus has a strong impact on the cardiovascular system, and cardiac imaging will play an important role in patients affected by coronavirus disease-2019. Although paediatric patients are mildly affected, they represent a clear accelerator in spreading the virus, and healthcare workers are at higher risk of infection. The aim of this position paper is to provide clinical recommendation regarding the execution of imaging investigations for the cardiac diagnostic work-up of paediatric patients with suspected or confirmed infection.

The perioperative dental screening and management of patients undergoing cardiothoracic, vascular surgery and other cardiovascular invasive procedures: A systematic review.

Background One controversial issue in the relationship between oral care and cardiovascular diseases is how and whether to manage oral infections prior to cardiovascular surgery or other cardiovascular invasive procedures. Design We designed a systematic review to assess the information available on three main questions. Is there an agreement on the need for dental evaluation and treatment before cardiovascular interventions? Are consistent clinical recommendations or protocols available? Is dental treatment prior to cardiovascular interventions effective? Methods A systematic electronic search of MEDLINE, Scopus and Web of Science was performed from the database inceptions up to 31 April 2016. Searches were performed using Boolean operators to combine medical subject headings and free text words. Because this review included a large, heterogeneous group of study designs and sources, the results were synthesised in a narrative approach. Results In total, 2447 studies were identified: 2099 (+241 duplicates) were excluded after screening; 107 were included for full-text assessment; 55 were excluded for not meeting the inclusion criteria; and 11 were not available. Thus, 44 studies meeting the inclusion criteria were analysed. We found that, for patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery, there is a general agreement on the need for screening and treatment of dental infections, but not on the protocols. We also found that there are conflicting indications on when and to what extent to perform the treatment and that the risk-to-benefit ratios for these treatments are controversial. Conclusion No satisfactory answers regarding dental care before cardiovascular invasive procedures are available.

Improvement in hemodynamic responses to metaboreflex activation after one year of training in spinal cord injured humans.

Spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals show an altered hemodynamic response to metaboreflex activation due to a reduced capacity to vasoconstrict the venous and arterial vessels below the level of the lesion. Exercise training was found to enhance circulating catecholamines and to improve cardiac preload and venous tone in response to exercise in SCI subjects. Therefore, training would result in enhanced diastolic function and capacity to vasoconstrict circulation. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that one year of training improves hemodynamic response to metaboreflex activation in these subjects. Nine SCI individuals were enrolled and underwent a metaboreflex activation test at the beginning of the study (T0) and after one year of training (T1). Hemodynamics were assessed by impedance cardiography and echocardiography at both T0 and T1. Results show that there was an increment in cardiac output response due to metaboreflex activity at T1 as compared to T0 (545.4 ± 683.9 mL · min(-1) versus 220.5 ± 745.4 mL · min(-1), P < 0.05). Moreover, ventricular filling rate response was higher at T1 than at T0. Similarly, end-diastolic volume response was increased after training. We concluded that a period of training can successfully improve hemodynamic response to muscle metaboreflex activation in SCI subjects.

Effects of acute vasodilation on the hemodynamic response to muscle metaboreflex.

The aim of the present study was to test the contribution of stroke volume (SV) in hemodynamic response to muscle metaboreflex activation in healthy individuals. We hypothesized that an acute decrease in cardiac afterload and preload due to the administration of a vasodilating agent could reduce postexercise muscle ischemia (PEMI)-induced SV response. Ten healthy males (age 33.6 ± 1.3 yr) were enrolled and randomly assigned to the following study protocol: 1) PEMI session, 2) control exercise recovery (CER) session, 3) PEMI after sublingual administration of 5 mg of isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN), and 4) CER after ISDN. Central hemodynamics were evaluated by means of impedance cardiography. The main findings were a blunted SV response during metaboreflex following acute arterial and venous vasodilation, associated with a reduction in cardiac diastolic time and filling, and a decrement of systemic vascular resistance. These hemodynamic changes restrain blood pressure response during metaboreflex activation. Our results indicate that hemodynamic response to metaboreflex activation is a highly integrated phenomenon encompassing complex interplay between heart rate, cardiac performance, preload, and afterload and that impairment of one or more of these parameters leads to altered hemodynamic response to metaboreflex.

Altered hemodynamics during muscle metaboreflex in young type 1 diabetes patients.

A reduction in catecholamine levels during exercise has been described in young subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1). It has been suggested that type 1 diabetes per se is associated with the loss of sympathetic response before any clinical evidence. Considering that an increase in sympathetic drive is required for normal cardiovascular response to muscle metaboreflex, the aim of this study was to assess the hemodynamics during metaboreflex in DM1 patients. Impedance cardiography was used to measure hemodynamics during metaboreflex activation, obtained through postexercise ischemia in 14 DM1 patients and in 11 healthy controls (CTL). Principal results were: 1) blunted blood pressure response during metaboreflex was observed in DM1 patients compared with the CTL; 2) reduced capacity to increase systemic vascular resistance was also witnessed in DM1 subjects; 3) DM1 subjects reported higher stroke volumes as a consequence of reduced cardiac afterload compared with the CTL, which led to a more evident cardiac output response, which partially compensated for the lack of vasoconstriction. These facts suggest that cardiovascular regulation was altered in DM1 patients and that there was a reduced capacity to increase sympathetic tone, even in the absence of any overt clinical sign. The metaboreflex test appears to be a valid tool to detect early signs of this cardiovascular dysregulation.

Inverted takotsubo cardiomyopathy induced by dobutamine stress echocardiography with atypical presentation.

A 48-year-old woman was scheduled by our lab to perform a standard dobutamine/atropine stress echocardiogram. During the test, the patient referred to a slight chest discomfort and developed a progressive left ventricle akinesia of all midbasal LV segments, thus mimicking a midbasal ballooning. ECG persisted without significant abnormalities and with no raise of Troponin I. Coronary angiography showed normal coronary arteries and ventriculography a severe EF reduction and apical hypercontractility. Echocardiography showed a progressive improvement with a complete recovery 48 hours later. This is a rare case of inverted takotsubo syndrome induced by dobutamine stress echocardiography that occurred with atypical presentation.

Patent ductus arteriosus in the preterm infant: new insights into pathogenesis and clinical management.

Postnatal closure of the ductus arteriosus is crucial in the circulatory adaptation of the newborn to extrauterine life. In recent years, many studies have been performed to improve our understanding of both the physiology of the ductus arteriosus in the fetus and newborn, and the mechanisms underlying persistent ductal patency in the preterm infant. The pharmacological treatment of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) remains a controversial issue. This article reviews the recent literature on the pathogenesis and clinical management of PDA in the preterm infant.