International journal of cardiology
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Letter Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of heparin neutralization by protamine on restenosis after coronary stent implantation.
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Cardiac tamponade is a rare complications after pacemaker implantation. However iatrogeny is becoming one of the main causes of severe pericardial effusions. We present the experience of our centre compiled in 17 years.
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Patients undergoing vascular surgery are at increased risk for perioperative cardiovascular (CV) complications. Our goal was to determine the effect of preoperative statin therapy on perioperative cardiac and vascular outcomes, and long-term survival in patients undergoing infrainguinal vascular bypass surgery. ⋯ Preoperative statin therapy is associated with fewer combined perioperative cardiac and major vascular complications, a shorter length of stay, and improved long-term survival in patients undergoing infrainguinal vascular bypass surgery.
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Letter Case Reports
Catheter closure of tube graft fenestration in extracardiac Fontan operation.
As the extracardiac Fontan operation evolves, a reliable method for creating and subsequently closing communications between the systemic and pulmonary venous chambers would become useful. We describe a simple and safe technique of fenestration amenable to coil occlusion, which can be carried out in most cardiac catheterization laboratories.
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An ideal cardiac biochemical marker should have not only high sensitivity but also high specificity to myocardial infarction. The creatine kinase-MB, a relatively specific cardiac marker, could be elevated in situations other than acute myocardial infarction, such as renal failure, muscular injury, and myopathy. Although these are more specific than creatine kinase-MB, cardiac troponins have also been reported to be elevated in conditions other than acute myocardial infarction, such as chronic renal failure, acute myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, pulmonary embolism, rhabdomyolysis, sepsis, and left ventricular hypertrophy. With the ongoing research in this field, future holds hopes of finding an ideally specific marker of myocardial infarction, but until then biochemical markers should be used in conjunction with clinical assessment and electrocardiography in making the diagnosis of myocardial infarction, and the patients should not be treated merely on the basis of elevated serum levels of cardiac biochemical markers.