Giornale italiano di cardiologia : organo ufficiale della Federazione italiana di cardiologia : organo ufficiale della Società italiana di chirurgia cardiaca
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Patients with heart failure in the "real world" are often elderly and with multiple comorbid diseases. These conditions create a dilemma for the physician responsible for the treatment of heart failure and are associated with a substantial underutilization of evidence-based treatments. Clarifying the prognostic impact of comorbidities in heart failure could provide more precise risk stratification and optimize the management of these patients. ⋯ COPD patients were older and with more severe symptoms; with respect to the pharmacological treatment, beta-blockers are significantly less prescribed in COPD patients while a similar proportion of patients are receiving angiotensin system antagonists. The adjusted analysis shows that COPD in not an independent predictor of 1-year mortality in this population while it is independently associated with 1-year all-cause hospitalization. Non-cardiovascular hospital admissions seem to be more influenced by the presence of this comorbidity than cardiovascular admissions.
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G Ital Cardiol (Rome) · Sep 2007
[Surgery for type A aortic dissection: long-term results and risk factor analysis].
Identification of risk factors may help prevent mortality and recurrence after surgical treatment of type A aortic dissection. ⋯ Surgery for acute aortic dissection represents an emergency treatment with satisfactory long-term results. Survival is affected by renal dysfunction at presentation, which should be aggressively treated, and by progression of the disease requiring reoperation; a dilated diameter of the aortic root should therefore indicate root replacement at the time of first operation.
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G Ital Cardiol (Rome) · May 2007
[Validation of a new scoring system to predict the risk of postoperative acute renal failure in cardiac surgery].
The aim of this study was to cross validate a new scoring system, based on preoperative risk factors, in predicting the risk of postoperative dialysis after cardiac surgery and recently proposed by Thakar et al. ⋯ Thakar's scoring system was validated in our population and all the major risk factors considered for its calculation were statistically significant in predicting postoperative dialysis after cardiac surgery.
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G Ital Cardiol (Rome) · Mar 2007
Review[Risk factors for cardiovascular diseases: what is the role for homocysteine?].
Cardiovascular diseases are commonly related to classical risk factors, but other risk markers have been identified, including homocysteine. Homocysteine is a sulphurated amino acid which derives from methionine. ⋯ A number of clinical and laboratory trials exist regarding the association between homocysteine levels and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the lack of homogeneity in the data, together with the high number of factors capable of influencing homocysteine plasma levels, and the disappointing results of therapeutic trials do not permit us at present to consider homocysteine as an independent and major risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
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In the recent years lung sonography has overcome his pioneer phase with the contribution of significant data from authors of different disciplines. Today there is therefore a strong evidence that this diagnostic method could have an important impact for the diagnosis of cardiothoracic symptoms, mainly dyspnea, in emergency or in ambulatory medicine. Since the cardiologist already uses ultrasound for the study of the heart, he or she could consider the integrated cardiopulmonary sonography extremely attractive in this specific context. In this review the authors describe the anatomical, biophysical and clinical basis of lung ultrasonography in a cardiological setting.