International heart journal
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Recently, it has been reported that ischemic postconditioning, a brief episode of ischemia-reperfusion performed after prolonged ischemia, can reduce ischemic myocardial injury. However, the effects of ischemic postconditioning on ischemia/reperfusion injury remain unclear. We investigated the effects of brief ischemia-reperfusion before (ischemic preconditioning) and after (ischemic postconditioning) prolonged ischemia on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, especially reperfusion arrhythmias. ⋯ These results suggest that ischemic postconditioning can terminate reperfusion arrhythmias with no reduction of cardiac function, and may be useful for correcting stunned myocardium.
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Case Reports
Massive pulmonary thromboembolism in pregnancy rescued using transcatheter thrombectomy.
We report a rescued 37-year-old woman in her 30(th) week of gestation with massive pulmonary thromboembolism who was admitted to our cardiac care unit with progressive dyspnea and 2 episodes of syncope. Helical chest CT showed massive pulmonary thromboembolism of both pulmonary arteries. ⋯ Since pulmonary artery (PA) pressure increased from 62/22 mmHg to 80/24 mmHg just after an emergency cesarean section on day 2, an emergency transcatheter thrombectomy was performed and it showed decreased PA pressure following extensive thrombus aspiration. Mother and baby were discharged with no complications.