The assessment of LVF was initially accomplished using cardiac catheterization and radionuclide angiography. These earlier techniques have the disadvantage of being invasive and therefore not suitable for very ill patients. There is also the risk of radiation exposure with the radionuclide method. However, with the emergence of Doppler echocardiography, a noninvasive assessment of LVF can [...]

Ninety-five patients studied were made up of 60 males and 35 females. Ninety-two controls, made up of 54 males and 38 females, were also studied. The majority of the patients were in the fifth decade, followed by the fourth and sixth decades (Table 1). Fourteen patients, made up of four with peripartum cardiac failure, three [...]

After approval by the Medical Ethical Committee of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, 95 consecutive patients with hypertensive heart failure and 92 age-/sex-matched normotensive apparently healthy controls were recruited into the study. The demographic and clinical characteristics of these subjects were taken from history, physical examination, and routine laboratory investigations. Also included were patients who at [...]

INTRODUCTION There is a growing awareness that congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by a predominant abnormality in diastolic function causes significant morbidity and mortality. In the natural course of hypertensive heart disease progression, diastolic dysfunction appears before systolic dysfunction in hypertensive heart failure. However, there are still some patients who come up with symptoms and [...]