International journal of cardiology
-
Evidence from clinical cohorts indicates an obesity paradox in overweight and obese patients who seem to have a more favorable short-term and long-term prognosis than leaner patients. Although obese cardiac arrest victims are theoretically more difficult to be resuscitated due to difficulties in providing adequate chest compressions, ventilation, and oxygenation, research so far has shown that there is an obesity paradox in cardiac arrest.
-
Multicenter Study Observational Study
Preventive effect of statin pretreatment on contrast-induced acute kidney injury in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty: propensity score analysis from a multicenter registry.
The prophylactic benefit of statins in reducing the incidence of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) has been investigated in several studies with conflicting results. We sought to investigate whether statin pretreatment prevents CI-AKI in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). ⋯ Statin pretreatment was associated with a significant decrease in the risk of CI-AKI in CAD patients undergoing PCI in the ICAS Registry.
-
To investigate recent trends in the diagnosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation. ⋯ Identification of atrial fibrillation has improved in recent years, as has treatment for stroke prevention. Although there has historically been a bias towards men in the treatment of stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, this study shows that the gap has been closing in recent years. Despite this improvement, this study shows that there are still many patients with atrial fibrillation who are not treated optimally to prevent stroke.
-
Patients with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (ccTGA) are at high risk of heart block requiring subpulmonary left ventricular (LV) pacing. Long-term right ventricular (RV) pacing in congenitally normal hearts is associated with LV dysfunction. We examined the effects of univentricular subpulmonary LV pacing on the systemic RV in a ccTGA cohort. ⋯ Univentricular subpulmonary LV pacing in patients with ccTGA predicted deterioration in RV function and RV dilatation over time associated with deteriorating NYHA class. Alternative primary pacing strategies such as biventricular pacing may need consideration in this vulnerable group already highly prone to mortality from systemic RV failure.
-
The mechanoenergetic effects of atrioventricular delay optimization during biventricular pacing ("cardiac resynchronization therapy", CRT) are unknown. ⋯ Biventricular pacing and atrioventricular delay optimization increased external cardiac work done but also myocardial oxygen consumption. Nevertheless, the increase in cardiac work was ~80% greater than the increase in oxygen consumption, signifying an improvement in cardiac mechanoenergetics. Finally, the incremental effect of optimization on external work was approximately one-third beyond that of nominal AV pacing, along the same favourable efficiency trajectory, suggesting that AV delay dominates the biventricular pacing effect - which may therefore not be mainly "resynchronization".