Heart : official journal of the British Cardiac Society
-
Multicenter Study
Clinical outcome of patients treated with spinal cord stimulation for therapeutically refractory angina pectoris. The Working Group on Neurocardiology.
To determine morbidity and mortality characteristics in patients treated with electrical neuromodulation for refractory angina pectoris. ⋯ The clinical outcome of patients with intractable angina is not adversely affected by the chronic use of neurostimulation.
-
Incidence of secondary pulmonary hypertension in adults with atrial septal or sinus venosus defects.
To examine the incidence of raised pulmonary artery pressure and resistance in adults with isolated atrial septal defect within the oval fossa (so called secundum defect) or sinus venosus defect. ⋯ Patients with sinus venosus defect have higher pulmonary pressures and resistances and develop these complications at younger age than patients with atrial septal defects. Thus they should be managed differently than patients with "simple" atrial septal defects.
-
To assess the impact of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) on the need for acute admissions for chest pain in patients with refractory angina pectoris. ⋯ SCS is effective in preventing hospital admissions in patients with refractory angina, without masking serious ischaemic symptoms or leading to silent infarction.
-
To evaluate the combined assessment of reflow and collateral blood flow by myocardial contrast echocardiography after myocardial infarction. ⋯ Combined assessment of reflow and collateral blood flow enhanced the sensitivity of myocardial contrast echocardiography in predicting myocardial viability after acute, reperfused myocardial infarction. The simultaneous presence of reflow and collateral blood flow was highly specific of recovery of segmental dysfunction.
-
Clinical Trial
Mapping and ablation of ventricular tachycardia with the aid of a non-contact mapping system.
Treatment of ventricular tachycardia (VT) in coronary heart disease has to date been limited to palliative treatment with drugs or implantable defibrillators. The results of curative treatment with catheter ablation have proved disappointing because the complexity of the VT mechanism makes identification of the substrate using conventional mapping techniques difficult. The use of a mapping technology that may address some of these issues, and thus make possible a cure for VT with catheter ablation, is reported. ⋯ The non-contact system can safely be used to map and ablate haemodynamically stable VT with low VT recurrence rates. It is yet to be established whether this system may be applied with equal success to patients with haemodynamically unstable VT.