INTRODUCTION: Routine thrombectomy has been advocated for ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), but it is unknown how many patients present with a large thrombus. We aimed to quantify the intracoronary thrombus in STEMI and to correlate it with procedure results. METHODS: In 98 patients with STEMI and TIMI flow grades 0-2 ...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the interaction between cigarette smoking and the clinical efficacy of clopidogrel in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking induces cytochrome P450 (CYP)1A2, which converts clopidogrel into its active metabolite, and prior studies suggest greater inhibition of platelet aggregation by ...

There are limited data on the validity of the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) risk score for unstable angina pectoris (UAP)/non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction in patients with moderate to advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), including patients using dialysis. Accordingly, we evaluated the prognostic ability of the TIMI risk score in consecutive ...

BACKGROUND: The left atrial volume index (LAVI) reflects left ventricular (LV) filling pressure and has been shown to predict outcome in various cardiovascular diseases. However, its value for the prediction of mortality in patients referred for suspected heart failure (HF) is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To assess the value of LAVI for ...

The aim of this study was to compare the prognostic significance of microvascular obstruction (MO) and persistent microvascular obstruction (PMO) as assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). CMR was performed in 184 patients within the week following successfully reperfused first AMI. First-pass images ...

Risk stratification of patients presenting to an emergency department (ED) with suspected cardiac chest pain (CP) and an undifferentiated electrocardiogram (ECG) is difficult. We hypothesized that a risk score incorporating clinical, ECG, Rand contrast echocardiography variables [regional function (RF) and myocardial perfusion (MP)] obtained at the bedside would accurately predict ...

BACKGROUND: Ventricular dysfunction in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients is a recognized predictor of in-hospital and post-discharge morbidity and mortality. Recently, hyperglycemia at admission has been considered as an important marker of poor in-hospital prognosis. AIM: To characterize an ACS population and to identify independent predictors of one-year mortality. METHODS: ...

We conducted a meta-analysis of the utility of pre-operative C reactive protein (CRP) in predicting early (< 30 days), intermediate (30-180 days) and long term (> 180 days) mortality and major adverse cardiac events (MACE; cardiac mortality and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) combined) following vascular surgery. Of 291 studies identified, ...

INTRODUCTION: Bleeding is currently the most common non-cardiac complication of therapy in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), and may itself be associated with adverse outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hemoglobin drop during hospital stay on outcome among patients with ACS. METHODS: Using ...

BACKGROUND: The use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) in patients with coronary artery disease remains controversial, with reports of increased risk of myocardial infarction and all-cause mortality. Short-acting CCBs have an unfavorable hemodynamic profile. The role of long-acting CCBs in patients with coronary artery disease is unknown. METHODS: MEDLINE/CENTRAL/EMBASE database ...

The current study was designed to determine whether drug-eluting stents (DES) are superior to bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients with stable angina. Percutaneous coronary intervention has been shown to decrease symptoms of angina; its use for stable angina has not been shown to reduce myocardial infarction or mortality. We conducted ...

OBJECTIVE: We tested whether two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (rs2383207 and rs10757278), previously strongly associated with myocardial infarction, are independently associated with stroke and coronary events in patients with hypertension. METHODS: The Nordic Diltiazem study compared the effects of calcium antagonist and beta-blocker or diuretic-based antihypertensive treatment on cardiovascular events in ...

The associations of a history of hypertension with subsequent outcomes after acute myocardial infarction have not been examined in propensity-matched studies. Of the 6,632 patients with acute myocardial infarctions and left ventricular systolic dysfunction in the Eplerenone Post-Acute Myocardial Infarction Heart Failure Efficacy and Survival Study (EPHESUS), 4,407 had histories ...

BACKGROUND: The presence of the ECG strain pattern of lateral ST depression and T-wave inversion at baseline has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality; however, the independent predictive value for cardiovascular outcomes of regression versus persistence versus development of new ECG strain during antihypertensive therapy ...

BACKGROUND: Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors are indicated in patients with acute coronary syndromes who are undergoing an invasive procedure. The optimal timing of the initiation of such therapy is unknown. METHODS: We compared a strategy of early, routine administration of eptifibatide with delayed, provisional administration in 9492 patients who had acute ...

Some meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials suggested that rosiglitazone could be associated with increased risk for myocardial infarction (MI). Available meta-analyses, based on studies sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), failed to include all trials performed with rosiglitazone. Aim of this analysis is the assessment of the cardiovascular risk with rosiglitazone, using ...

BACKGROUND: Insulin resistance is associated with increased sympathetic and reduced parasympathetic activity. Resting heart rate reflects autonomic activity. Therefore, we examined the associations of resting heart rate with insulin resistance, cardiovascular events and mortality in the moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) population. METHODS: Four hundred and sixty participants with MDRD ...

Erythropoietin has been related to adverse prognosis in patients with heart failure, but it is unknown whether it adds prognostic information in acute coronary syndrome. Plasma erythropoietin was measured on admission with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 627 patients. Patients were divided into three groups depending on their erythropoietin level and ...

OBJECTIVE: Advanced ischemic heart failure can be treated with surgical ventricular restoration (SVR). While numerous risk factors for mortality and recurrent heart failure have been identified, no plain predictor for identifying SVR patients with left ventricular damage beyond recovery is yet available. We tested echocardiographic wall motion score index (WMSI) ...

AIMS: Macrophages in atherosclerotic plaques secrete YKL-40. We tested the hypothesis if high serum YKL-40 concentration predicts coronary events and death of patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS AND RESULTS: During the 2.6 years follow-up period (median 2.77 year, interquartile range 0.23 year), 270 patients among the 4298 ...

BACKGROUND: Kidney failure (stage 5 chronic kidney disease [CKD]) is an independent risk factor for stent thrombosis (ST). Moderate (stage 3-4) CKD and proteinuria are both associated with adverse cardiovascular events, including worse outcomes after myocardial infarction (MI). Whether moderate CKD and proteinuria increase the risk of ST after MI ...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the prognostic value of adiponectin in patients with acute destabilized heart failure. DESIGN AND METHODS: Adiponectin was measured in 137 consecutive heart failure patients attending an emergency department. The endpoint was 1-year all-cause mortality. RESULTS: In Cox proportional-hazards regression, an adiponectin plasma concentration>24.1 mg/L had a risk ...

Limited data are available on long-term outcomes for vulnerable plaque analyzed by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). The aim of this study was to investigate long-term clinical outcomes in 183 patients (79 with stable angina pectoris and 104 with acute coronary syndromes) who underwent preintervention 3-vessel IVUS and single-vessel stent implantation. Critical ...

Heart rate turbulence (HRT) provided insights into cardiac autonomic function and predicted clinical outcome in patients with myocardial infarction. A relation between cardiac autonomic function and inflammation was shown in several clinical settings. To assess the prognostic impact of HRT and its relation with inflammation in patients with unstable angina ...

We determined the factors associated with exacerbation of heart failure, using a cohort (n = 192) nested within a randomized trial at a university-affiliated ambulatory practice. Factors associated with emergency or hospital care included left ventricular ejection fraction, hematocrit and serum sodium levels, refill adherence, and the ability to read ...

The mortality rate of patients with cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction remains exceedingly high despite early mechanical revascularization. Early risk stratification is of great importance to identify patients who could benefit from ventricular assist devices and urgent heart transplantation (UHT). All consecutive patients with cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial ...

BACKGROUND: Nitric oxide (NO) is produced from L-arginine by NO synthase and is an important molecule with antiatherogenic properties. Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) acts as an endogenous inhibitor of endothelial NO synthase. As such, it has been associated with endothelial dysfunction and elevated circulating levels of ADMA have been found in ...

Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) express enhanced catabolic metabolism finally resulting in overall weight loss, whereas adipokines might play a crucial role in signaling among tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible associations of defined variability in leptin (dbSNP ID rs7799039), proopiomelanocortin (dbSNP ID rs3754860 ...

AIMS: The aim of this study was to review all percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) performed in our department for chronic total occlusions (CTO) over the last three years, and analyse the success rate and complications. METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively studied all PCls for total occlusions of more than four ...

OBJECTIVE: The prognostic significance of left and right bundle branch block (LBBB and RRBB) in patients with chronic stable cardiovascular (CV) disease is not well characterized and was evaluated in the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study cohort. DESIGN: Observational analysis of data prospectively collected in the HOPE trial. SETTING ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Dyspneic emergency department (ED) patients present a diagnostic dilemma. Recent technologic advances have made it possible to capture information about pathologic heart sounds at ECG recording. This study evaluates the effect of an S3 captured by acoustic cardiography on emergency physician diagnostic accuracy and confidence in their diagnosis ...

BACKGROUND: The impact of various clinical variables on long-term survival of patients with acutely decompensated diastolic heart failure (DHF) compared to systolic heart failure (SHF) has not been sufficiently investigated. METHODS: Clinical, laboratory, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic data were collected and analyzed for all-cause mortality in 473 furosemide-treated patients aged >or=60 ...

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) increases length of stay (LOS) in VAP versus non-VAP patients, but LOS differences among VAP patients remain unexplained. We explored the economic impact of developing a respiratory superinfection while being treated for VAP. This was a retrospective, observational cohort study conducted in 74 patients discharged between January ...

BACKGROUND: Most proton pump inhibitors inhibit the bioactivation of clopidogrel to its active metabolite. The clinical significance of this drug interaction is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a population-based nested case-control study among patients aged 66 years or older who commenced clopidogrel between Apr. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2007, following ...

BACKGROUND: Clinical predictors of cardiac mortality in chronic heart failure (CHF) are established, but less is known about chronic psychological predictors. Therefore, we examined the prognostic value of Type D personality (tendency to experience negative feelings and inhibit self-expression) in CHF patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Consecutive systolic CHF outpatients (n=232) ...

Our aim was to evaluate the Standard Deviation of Normal-Normal (SDNN) interbeat interval as a risk marker in left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) patients through a meta-analysis. We searched PubMed for studies that evaluated SDNN as a predictor of all-cause-death, cardiac death, transplantation, and progressive clinical deterioration using a search ...

AIMS: To determine whether risk stratification tests can predict serious arrhythmic events after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF < or = 0.40). METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 5869 consecutive patients were screened in 10 European centres, and 312 patients (age 65 ...

Red blood cell distribution width (RDW), a numerical measure of the variability in size of circulating erythrocytes, has recently been shown to be a strong predictor of adverse outcomes in patients with heart failure and in patients with prior myocardial infarction but no symptomatic heart failure at baseline, even after ...

BACKGROUND: The surgical stress response plays an important role on the pathogenesis of perioperative cardiac complications. Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists attenuate this response and may thereby prevent cardiac complications. OBJECTIVES: This review assessed the efficacy and safety of preoperative (within 24 hours), intraoperative, and postoperative (first 48 hours) alpha-2 adrenergic agonists ...

BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis patients are prone to ischemic events potentially aggravated by hypoxia. The key player in adaptation to hypoxia is hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1alpha). Therefore, we investigated the association of HIF-1alpha polymorphisms with ischemia/hypoxia-related events in hemodialysis patients. METHODS: Patients on maintenance hemodialysis were enrolled from 4 training hospitals in ...

OBJECTIVES: In patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels may predict worse cardiovascular outcomes. It is known that SUA levels are influenced by renal function. We aimed to assess the predictive value of SUA while taking into account patients' renal function. METHODS: The primary end ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: We aimed to replicate the previously observed association between acetylcholine receptor subtype M2 (CHRM2) gene polymorphisms and heart rate recovery (HRR) after exercise in patients with a recent acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and assess the prognostic significance of CHRM2 gene variants after AMI. METHODS: HRR was determined ...

BACKGROUND: The positive effect of reperfusion after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) can be reduced by ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury.Mannose-binding-lectin (MBL) and soluble C5b-9 (membrane-attack-complex) are involved in complement-driven cell lysis and may play a role in human myocardial I/R injury. We evaluated the potential association between MBL and sC5b-9 in plasma ...

BACKGROUND: Despite the superior coding and risk adjustment of clinical data, the ready availability, national scope, and perceived unbiased nature of administrative data make it the choice of governmental agencies and insurance companies for evaluating quality and outcomes. We calculated pediatric cardiac surgery mortality rates from administrative data and compared ...

We sought to compare outcomes for percutaneous coronary intervention patients undergoing complete revascularization (CR) and incomplete revascularization (IR) in the drug-eluting stent era. There have been relatively few studies that have examined the impact of IR in patients undergoing coronary stenting, particularly in the era of drug-eluting stents. New York ...

BACKGROUND: Adiponectin is associated with many cardiovascular risk factors. Thus, a relation between adiponectin and subsequent coronary heart disease has been hypothesized. However, the results of prospective studies have been conflicting. METHODS: In this nested case-control study, blood samples were collected from 5243 of 12 490 community residents enrolled in ...

In elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction, very little is known about the role of surgical myocardial revascularization and percutaneous coronary intervention (invasive therapies--IT), especially in the context of long-term outcomes after hospital discharge. We analyzed 1588 patients with MI who had been included prospectively in a databank and followed ...

BACKGROUND: We assessed the degree to which differences in guideline-based medical therapy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) contribute to the higher mortality associated with kidney disease. METHODS: In the PREMIER registry, we evaluated patients from 19 US centers surviving AMI. Cox regression evaluated the association between estimated glomerular filtration rate ...

PURPOSE: To analyse discharge prescription of recommended treatments in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) according to reperfusion strategies. METHODS: IN-ACS (Italian Network on Acute Coronary Syndromes) Outcome, an observational, multicenter study, enrolled 6045 ACS patients admitted within 48 h. In the present study we compared the discharge prescription ...

Previous data are conflicting as to whether imbalance between hemostatic factors is associated with clinical strokes. We evaluated the association between hemostatic factor levels and subclinical lacunar infarcts in a nested sample from a subset of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort. 196 cases without clinical strokes had lacunar ...