SUMMARY Ten patients (six women and four men) with endomyocardial disease, four with and six without hypereosinophilia, were studied by two-dimensional echocardiography (2-D echo). Eight had biventricular congestive heart failure and two had atypical chest pain with ischemic electrocardiographic changes. The patients were 15-50 years old (mean 40 years) and duration of illness was 2-9 years (mean 4.4 years). Nine had cardiac catheterization and three pathologic examination.Characteristic 2-D echo findings included apical obliteration of one or both ventricles by echogenic material suggestive of fibrosis or thrombosis; bright, specular echoes at the cavity surface of the apical obliteration suggesting patchy calcification; preserved left apical systolic inward motion, which differed significantly from the dyskinetic motion of thrombotic apical obliteration of ischemic or Chagasic origin (p < 0.001); involvement of the papillary muscles and posterior atrioventricular valve; preserved ventricular contractile function in most patients; and the combination of normal-to-small ventricles with large atria. None of 14 subjects with secondary hypereosinophilia followed for 15.4 months developed similar 2-D echo findings.We conclude that both forms of endomyocardial disease had a 2-D echo pattern useful for noninvasive recognition and differentiation from patients who have valvular heart disease, constrictive pericarditis and cardiomyopathies of other origins.

In the elderly, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is better associated with carotid damage than clinic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure variables are the best associated, blood pressure load and pulse pressure being better associated with carotid damage than the mean levels of ambulatory blood pressure.

Correction: Predictive value for cardiovascular events of common carotid intima media thickness and its rate of change in individuals at high cardiovascular risk-Results from the PROG-IMT collaboration. PLoS ONE 13(9): e0204633.

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