The American journal of cardiology
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Why adults with the Eisenmenger syndrome fare so much better than other patients with severe pulmonary hypertension is not known, but may be related to unique hemodynamics found only in these patients and in normal fetuses. We used echocardiography to evaluate ventricular morphology and function in 80 subjects: 45 cyanotic adults and 5 cyanotic adolescents with Eisenmenger syndrome, 10 infants with nonrestrictive ventricular septal defect and left-to-right shunt flow (pre-Eisenmenger phase), and 20 fetuses with structurally normal hearts. Cross-sectional morphology of the hearts was the same in all 4 groups with a flat ventricular septum throughout the cardiac cycle and equal thickness of the right and left ventricular free walls (regression slope 0.98, r = 0.97, p <0.0001). ⋯ Overall, there was a highly significant linear relation between right and left ventricular function (r = 0.81, p <0.0001). The hearts of patients with Eisenmenger syndrome are more like normal fetal hearts than normal adult hearts. Because of the unique cardiovascular hemodynamics, regression of right ventricular wall thickness does not occur and is likely the reason that patients with Eisenmenger syndrome fare so much better than other adults with severe pulmonary hypertension.
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Multicenter Study
Development and validation of a clinical prediction rule for major adverse outcomes in coronary bypass grafting.
In this study, we develop and internally validate a clinical prediction rule for in-hospital major adverse outcomes, defined as death, renal failure, reinfarction, cardiac arrest, cerebrovascular accident, or coma, in patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). All adult patients (n = 9,498) who underwent a CABG and no other concomitant surgery at 12 academic medical centers from August 1993 to October 1995 were included in the study. We assessed in-hospital major adverse outcomes and their predictors using information on admission, coronary angiography, and postoperative hospital course. ⋯ The spread in probability between the lowest and highest risk groups of having a major adverse outcome was 1.7% to 32.3% in the derivation set and 2.2% to 22.3% in the validation set. The prediction model performed well in both outcome discrimination and calibration. Thus, this clinical prediction rule allows accurate stratification of potential CABG candidates before surgery according to the risk of experiencing a major adverse outcome postoperatively.
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Biography Historical Article
James Stuart Forrester III, MD: a conversation with the editor [interview by William Clifford Roberts].