Objective-To assess the relation between ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction and left ventricular remodelling.Design-Prospective study with consecutive patients. patients with acute myocardial infarction underwent serial echocardiographic examinations (days 1, 2, 3, and 7, and after 3 weeks) to determine end diastolic volume, end systolic volume, and ejection fraction; volumes were normalised for body surface area and expressed as indices.

Transesophageal echocardiography is a new echocardio-graphic technique with indications that are still expanding and being redefined. Recently, the usefulness of transesophageal echocardiography in pulmonary embolism has been demonstrated in several case reports. In this article, we present 3 cases with pulmonary embolism diagnosed by transesophageal echocardiography and discuss its diagnostic value in this clinical setting.

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summaryBackground: It has been shown that preinfarction angina may have beneficial effects on infarct size and mortality. However, there are no studies that have serially assessed the impact of preinfarction angina on left ventricular (LV) function in a large series of patients.Hypothesis: The study was undertaken to determine whether preinfarction angina (within 7 days before infarction) influences LV remodeling.Methods: In all, 119 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction were serially evaluated by 2-dimensional echocardiography (on Days 1,2,3, and 7; at 3 and 6 weeks; and at 3,6. and 12 months following infarction). Left ventricular volumes were determined using Simpson's biplane formula and normalized for body surface area. Wall motion score index and sphericity index were calculated for each study. Coronary angiography was performed before discharge.Results: Preinfarction angina was detected in 39 of I 19 patients. lnitial echocardiographic and clinical data as well as the incidence of patent infarct-related artery and collaterals were similar for patients with and without preinfarction angina. In the subset of thrombolysed patients, patients with preinfarction angina showed decrease of LV end-diastolic and end-sys-