Rev Esp Cardiol
-
Advanced heart failure, also be defined as stage D heart failure, characterized by advanced structural heart disease and marked symptoms of heart failure at rest despite dietary modification, salt restriction and maximal medical therapy including ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers, digitalics, diuretics and beta blockers. These patients require frequent hospitalizations and specialized interventions such as heart transplantation, implantation of mechanical assistance devices, continuous intravenous inotropic therapy to palliate symptoms, or continued terminal care.
-
The aim of this study was to evaluate the production of research papers by Spanish authors on diagnostic imaging published in the official journals of two Spanish scientific societies (Revista Española de Cardiología and Radiología) between 1994 and 1998, and to compare publication rates with those of research papers published in foreign cardiological and radiological journals included in Journal Citation Reports. ⋯ Although a tendency for radiologists to publish increasingly in foreign radiological journals has been observed, Spanish cardiologists and radiologists publish more than 50% of their research papers on diagnostic imaging in the official journals of their national societies. The differences in the percentage of articles by Spanish authors published in international specialty journals ranked in the first quartile (twice as great for cardiology as for radiology) suggests that Spanish radiologists are joining the scientific international community at a slower rate than Spanish cardiologists.
-
Patients with pulmonary embolism and right ventricle dysfunction (determined with clinical, hemodynamic or echocardiographic methods) are a subgroup at high risk for complications. One of the pathogenic factors of right ventricular dysfunction in pulmonary embolism is myocardial ischemia, usually secondary to hemodynamic overload, and sometimes worsened by underlying coronary artery disease. We described a patient with pulmonary embolism and dyskinesia of the right ventricular free wall, related to chronic atherosclerotic occlusion of the right coronary artery proximal to the acute marginal branches that irrigate the free wall.
-
Acute severe thrombocytopenia is a serious although infrequent complication following abciximab infusion that is usually managed with platelet transfusions. We present a patient who underwent multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention with concomitant abciximab administration. ⋯ He was successfully managed with IgG administration. The clinical and therapeutic implications of this case are discussed.
-
Comparative Study
[Tako-tsubo syndrome associated with a long course of the left anterior descending coronary artery along the apical diaphragmatic surface of the left ventricle].
Tako-tsubo-like transient left ventricular apical ballooning has been described in Japan, but few cases have been reported in Western countries. We report one of the first series outside Japan, which provides new information on the coronary anatomy of this disorder. ⋯ All our patients with tako-tsubo syndrome had a left anterior descending with a long recurrent segment. The identical ventriculographic findings in patients with tako-tsubo syndrome and those with acute myocardial infarction with a long recurrent segment may be due to a common etiology.