The Journal of invasive cardiology
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The purpose of this study was to retrospectively review the 5-year experience of a university hospital with implantable loop recorders (ILR) for the diagnosis of recurrent, unexplained syncope or presyncope. ⋯ Five-year experience with the ILR in 100 consecutive patients confirms the utility of this device in the diagnosis of recurrent, infrequent, unexplained syncope or presyncope. It helped diagnose 45% of patients with unexplained syncope with negative electrophysiologic and neurologic workup. Most of these patients had an arrhythmogenic etiology to their syncope. Medical therapy, device therapy, and/or catheter ablation helped successfully treat all patients with an arrhythmogenic etiology detected by ILR.
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Review Case Reports
Percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy for the treatment of infected pericardial effusion with tamponade.
Percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy has been used as an alternative for surgically created pericardial window mainly for the management of malignant pericardial effusions in critically ill patients. We describe a patient with purulent pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade who was treated successfully and without complications with percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy.
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Review Case Reports
Very late bare-metal stent thrombosis. A case report and review of the literature.
Stent thrombosis is a catastrophic event characterized by the acute thrombotic occlusion of a previously-stented segment of a coronary artery. It usually presents as an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and/or death, and most commonly occurs within the first several weeks after stent placement. ⋯ While very late stent thrombosis (VLST), occurring beyond 1 year, is not uncommon with the use of drug-eluting stents, it is distinctly unusual with the use of bare-metal stents. We report a case of very late thrombosis of a bare-metal stent occurring 717 days after implantation.
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Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) achieves brisk coronary flow in > 90% of patients, but myocardial reperfusion (reperfusion at the tissue level) is often suboptimal, as evidenced by persistent ST-segment elevation and abnormal myocardial blush. Patients with suboptimal myocardial reperfusion have limited myocardial salvage and increased mortality. Distal micro-embolization may contribute to poor myocardial reperfusion, and this has stimulated great interest in the use of adjunctive thrombectomy with primary PCI in an attempt to prevent distal micro-embolization and improve outcomes. ⋯ The results of these trials have been conflicting and the totality of evidence does not support the routine use of thrombectomy for removal of thrombus in patients with STEMI treated with primary PCI. In patients with large thrombus burden, distal macroembolization is common and is associated with poor outcomes. Adjunctive thrombectomy can effectively remove thrombus, and it seems appropriate to perform adjunctive thrombectomy prior to primary PCI in patients with large thrombus burden.
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Heavy alcohol consumption is a well-known cause of dilated cardiomyopathy and hypertension, but its effects on coronary atherosclerosis are less well understood. The objective of this study was to compare coronary anatomy and left ventricular dysfunction in patients with and without alcoholism associated with heavy consumption. ⋯ In a group of male VA patients presenting with chest pain, alcoholism was associated with a lower incidence and a lesser severity of angiographically-defined CAD, but had greater left ventricular dysfunction. There appears to be an inverse relationship between CAD and left ventricular function in patients with a history of heavy alcohol consumption.