• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.324-333
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• 2021

Objective: The clinical course of an individual patient with heart failure is unpredictable with left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) only. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived myocardial fibrosis extent and to determine the cutoff value for event-free survival in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) who had severely reduced LVEF. Materials and Methods: Our prospective cohort study included 78 NICM patients with significantly reduced LV systolic function (LVEF < 35%). CMR images were analyzed for the presence and extent of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). The primary outcome was major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), defined as a composite of cardiac death, heart transplantation, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator discharge for major arrhythmia, and hospitalization for congestive heart failure within 5 years after enrollment. Results: A total of 80.8% (n = 63) of enrolled patients had LGE, with the median LVEF of 25.4% (19.8-32.4%). The extent of myocardial scarring was significantly higher in patients who experienced MACE than in those without any cardiac events (22.0 [5.5-46.1] %LV vs. 6.7 [0-17.1] %LV, respectively, p = 0.008). During follow-up, 51.4% of patients with LGE ≥ 12.0 %LV experienced MACE, along with 20.9% of those with LGE ≤ 12.0 %LV (log-rank p = 0.001). According to multivariate analysis, LGE extent more than 12.0 %LV was independently associated with MACE (adjusted hazard ratio, 6.71; 95% confidence interval, 2.54-17.74; p < 0.001). Conclusion: In NICM patients with significantly reduced LV systolic function, the extent of LGE is a strong predictor for long-term adverse cardiac outcomes. Event-free survival was well discriminated with an LGE cutoff value of 12.0 %LV in these patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.224-227
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• 1993

We experienced one case of orthotopic cardiac transplantation in a patient with end stage dilated cardiomyopathy. This 50 year-old female recipient was suffered from NYHA functional class IV cardiac failure and dependent upon intravenous inotropic support for 2 months [recipient category 1]. Her preoperative condition was grave with left ventricular ejection fraction of 20% and estimated systolic pulmonary arterial pressure [from Doppler study] was 50mmHg. The brain-dead donor was 31 year-old male with head trauma. The body sizes [weight, height] of the donor/recipient were 70 Kg, 165 cm / 43 Kg, 160 cm and appropriately overmatched. Preoperatively, identical ABO/Rh blood group [A+] and nonreacting HLA crossmatching were confirmed. On November 11 1992 cardiac transplantation was performed without complication. Multiple organ procurement team and heart transplantation team were organized the operation schedule appropriately to minimize the ischemic time. The pump time was 126 minutes and aortic crossclamping time of recipient heart was 73 minutes and, as a result, total ischemic time of the transplanted heart was 75 minutes. Postoperatively, the vital signs were stable with minimal inotropic support. The immunosuppressive therapy was commenced from preoperatively and cyclosporine, azathioprine, and corticosteroid were used as a combination therapy as scheduled and monitored with blood drug concentration, WBC count, renal function and most importantly regular endomyocardial biopsy.Now, 5 months after transplantation, the patient is in NYHA functional class II with minimal cardiac drug support.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.169-177
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• 2023

BACKGROUND: Acute worsening of cardiac function frequently leads to kidney dysfunction. This study aimed to identify clinical and imaging parameters associated with impaired kidney function in patients with acute decompensated heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). METHODS: Data from 131 patients hospitalized with acute decompensated HFrEF (left ventricular ejection fraction, < 40%) were analyzed. Patients were divided into two groups according to the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) at admission (those with preserved kidney function [GFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m²] and those with reduced kidney function [GFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m²]). Various echocardiographic parameters and perirenal fat thicknesses were assessed by computed tomography. RESULTS: There were 71 patients with preserved kidney function and 60 patients with reduced kidney function. Increased age (odds ratio [OR], 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.12; p = 0.005), increased log N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (OR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.14-2.66; p = 0.010), and increased perirenal fat thickness (OR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.10-1.29; p < 0.001) were independently associated with reduced kidney function, even after adjusting for variable clinical and echocardiographic parameters. The optimal average perirenal fat thickness cut-off value of > 12 mm had a sensitivity of 55% and specificity of 83% for kidney dysfunction prediction. CONCLUSIONS: Thick perirenal fat was independently associated with impaired kidney function in patients hospitalized for acute decompensated HFrEF. Measurement of perirenal fat thickness may be a promising imaging marker for the detection of HFrEF patients who are more susceptible to kidney dysfunction.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.223-230
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• 1988

Emax, end-systolic pressure-volume relationship, has been established as a new concept which can be representative of ventricular contractility itself since 1970s. Comparing to ejection fraction[EF], Emax is independent of preload and afterload. However Emax has not been proved precisely in non-thoracotomized condition because current methods have limitation in measuring ventricular chamber volume accurately in in viva state. The Dynamic Spatial Reconstructor[DSR], high speed computerized tomography, can measure ventricular chamber volume accurately throughout cardiac cycle in non-thoracotomized state. So Emax and EF of the left ventricle was tried to measure precisely in in vivo condition with DSR. Emax was compared to EF to estimate its ability to evaluate ventricular contractility. 5 mongrel dogs, weighing 15-16kg, were used for measuring Emax and EF of the left ventricle in 3 or 4 different loading conditions using DSR. Emax value in 5 dogs was from 2.62 to 10.49. Each dog has one Emax value regardless of loading conditions. However EF in 5 dogs varies depending on loading conditions. The conclusions are that Emax is useful in in viva state and EF varies depending on loading conditions. So Emax should be tried to use in clinical situation rather than EF because it is always representative of contractility itself regardless loading conditions in in viva state.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.15B no.6
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• pp.507-516
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• 2008

Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death in the world. Quantification of cardiac function is performed by manually calculating blood volume and ejection fraction in routine clinical practice, but it requires high computational costs. In this study, an automatic left ventricle (LV) segmentation algorithm using short-axis cine cardiac MRI is presented. We compensate coil sensitivity of magnitude images depending on coil location, classify edge information after extracting edges, and segment LV by applying region-growing segmentation. We design a weighting function for intensity signal and calculate a blood volume of LV considering partial voxel effects. Using cardiac cine SSFP of 38 subjects with Cornell University IRB approval, we compared our algorithm to manual contour tracing and MASS software. Without partial volume effects, we achieved segmentation accuracy of $3.3mL{\pm}5.8$ (standard deviation) and $3.2mL{\pm}4.3$ in diastolic and systolic phases, respectively. With partial volume effects, the accuracy was $19.1mL{\pm}8.8$ and $10.3mL{\pm}6.1$ in diastolic and systolic phases, respectively. Also in ejection fraction, the accuracy was $-1.3%{\pm}2.6$ and $-2.1%{\pm}2.4$ without and with partial volume effects, respectively. Results support that the proposed algorithm is exact and useful for clinical practice.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 1992

Gated blood pool scan is frequently used for evaluating the change in cardiac function in various cardiac diseases. But resting gated blood pool scan using only LVEF as a cardiac index has been consitently shown to have a low sensitivity, which is about 50%, in detecting coronary artery disease. So it is recommended to compare exercise gated blood pool scan to resting gated blood pool scan. Exercise tests, however, are not always possible, especially in patients with musculoskeletal diseases, recent myocardial infarction and in elderly persons. We studied the usefulness of resting gated blood pool scan using multiple indices in evaluating the patients with coronary artery disease. Studied cases were 185 patients with coronary artery disease (angina pectoris 31, myocardial infarction 154) and 25 normals with low likelihood of coronary artery disease. We used $^{99m}Tc-labeled$ RBC, 740 MBq labeled by in vivo method. The data were evaluated by Micro DELTA computer program. The results were as following: 1) The ejection rates (PER, AER) and filling rates (PFR, AFR) were different in normls and patients with angina pectoris or myocardial infarction. 2) Mean phase angle, ejection rates and filling rates could separate normals from coronary artery disease patients with normal LVEF. 3) Regional ejection fraction was decreased at the site of the infarct in patients with myocardial infarction. 4) Peak filling rate was the the most detectable index in evaluation of cardiac function in patients with coronary artery disease. 5) The threshold at 1.5 standard deviation of normal range was considered as the most reliable cut-off value from ROC analysis. These data suggest that the resting gated blood pool scan has an important role in the evaluation of cardiac functional changes using various cardiac indices in patients with coronary artery disease.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.73-82
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• 2003

Objectives: A new software (Cardiac SPECT Analyzer: CSA) was developed for quantification of volumes and election fraction on gated myocardial SPECT. Volumes and ejection fraction by CSA were validated by comparing with those quantified by Quantitative Gated SPECT (QGS) software. Materials and Methods: Gated myocardial SPECT was peformed in 40 patients with ejection fraction from 15% to 85%. In 26 patients, gated myocardial SPECT was acquired again with the patients in situ. A cylinder model was used to eliminate noise semi-automatically and profile data was extracted using Gaussian fitting after smoothing. The boundary points of endo- and epicardium were found using an iterative learning algorithm. Enddiastolic (EDV) and endsystolic volumes (ESV) and election fraction (EF) were calculated. These values were compared with those calculated by QGS and the same gated SPECT data was repeatedly quantified by CSA and variation of the values on sequential measurements of the same patients on the repeated acquisition. Results: From the 40 patient data, EF, EDV and ESV by CSA were correlated with those by QGS with the correlation coefficients of 0.97, 0.92, 0.96. Two standard deviation (SD) of EF on Bland Altman plot was 10.1%. Repeated measurements of EF, EDV, and ESV by CSA were correlated with each other with the coefficients of 0.96, 0.99, and 0.99 for EF, EDV and ESV respectively. On repeated acquisition, reproducibility was also excellent with correlation coefficients of 0.89, 0.97, 0.98, and coefficient of variation of 8.2%, 5.4mL, 8.5mL and 2SD of 10.6%, 21.2mL, and 16.4mL on Bland Altman plot for EF, EDV and ESV. Conclusion: We developed the software of CSA for quantification of volumes and ejection fraction on gated myocardial SPECT. Volumes and ejection fraction quantified using this software was found valid for its correctness and precision.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.511-518
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• 2022

Sepsis-associated myocardial injury, an invertible myocardial depression, is a common complication of sepsis. Neogambogic acid is an active compound in garcinia and exerts anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification properties. The role of neogambogic acid in sepsis-associated myocardial injury was assessed. Firstly, mice were pretreated with neogambogic acid and then subjected to lipopolysaccharide treatment to induce sepsis. Results showed that lipopolysaccharide treatment induced up-regulation of biomarkers involved in cardiac injury, including lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), and troponin I (cTnI). However, pretreatment with neogambogic acid reduced levels of LDH, CK-MB, and cTnI, and ameliorated histopathological changes in the heart tissues of septic mice. Secondly, neogambogic acid also improved cardiac function in septic mice through reduction in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, and enhancement of ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and left ventricular systolic mean pressure. Moreover, neogambogic acid suppressed cardiac apoptosis and inflammation in septic mice and reduced cardiac fibrosis. Lastly, protein expression of p-p38, p-JNK, and p-NF-κB in septic mice was decreased by neogambogic acid. In conclusion, neogambogic acid exerted anti-apoptotic, anti-fibrotic, and anti-inflammatory effects in septic mice through the inactivation of MAPK/NF-κB pathway.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.121-131
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• 2001

Echocardiography and catheterization angiography suffer certain limitations in the evaluation of congenital heart diseases in adults, though these are overcome by MRI, in which a wide field-of view, unlimited multiplanar imaging capability and three-dimensional contrast-enhanced MR angiography techniques are used. In adults, recently introduced fast imaging techniques provide cardiac MR images of sufficient quality and with less artifacts. Ventricular volume, ejection fraction, and vascular flow measurements, including pressure gradients and pulmonary-to-systemic flow ratio, can be calculated or obtained using fast cine MRI, phase-contrast MR flow-velocity mapping, and semiautomatic analysis software. MRI is superior to echocardiography in diagnosing partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection, unroofed coronary sinus, anomalies of the pulmonary arteries, aorta and systemic veins, complex heart diseases, and postsurgical sequelae. Biventricular function is reliably evaluated with cine MRI after repair of tetralogy of Fallot, and Senning's and Mustard's operations. MRI has an important and growing role in the morphologic and functional assessment of congenital heart diseases in adolescents and adults.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.250-257
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• 2010

This study was to analysis what factors could affect left ventricle ejection fraction(LVEF) using 64-slice multidetector CT. 164 patients(84 men, 80 women) had a cardiac CT in this study, and their blood pressure, body mass index(BMI), heart rate(HR) measured. LVEF was 52.00${\pm}$18.95% in below 25kg/$m^2$, 59.50${\pm}$16.05% in above 25kg/$m^2$ of BMI. LVEF was 57.26${\pm}$17.84% in normal blood pressure group(NBPG), 49.95${\pm}$17.63 in hypertension group(HG). LVEF was 60.76${\pm}$17.26 in below 60 beats/min, 54.14${\pm}$16.56 in 60-70 beats/min, 50.83${\pm}$20.56 in above 70 beats/min of HR. LVEF was negatively correlated with age, HR(r=-0.283 p<0.05, r=-0.231 p<0.05. respectively). And LVEF was positively correlated with BMI(r=0.228 p<0.05). A measurement of LVEF at cardiac CT by using MDCT may be considered to age, blood pressure, heart rate and BMI.