Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia
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Arq. Bras. Cardiol. · Jul 2009
Dobutamine-stress echocardiography in asymptomatic patients with aortic regurgitation.
Decreased contractile reserve may already be present in asymptomatic patients with aortic regurgitation and normal ejection fraction (EF), thus indicating the need for frequent and accurate assessments of the left ventricular function for the early detection of systolic dysfunction. ⋯ Baseline EF was correlated with surgery or death in the follow-up of young patients with aortic regurgitation. However, the percentage increase in EF at low dobutamine doses did not allow us to predict events in these patients.
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Arq. Bras. Cardiol. · Jul 2009
Maternal-fetal outcome and prognosis of cardiac surgery during pregnancy.
Cardiac surgery improves the maternal prognosis in cases refractory to medical therapy. However, it is associated with risks to the fetus when performed during pregnancy. ⋯ Cardiac surgery during pregnancy allowed survival of 92.7% of the mothers, and 56.0% of the patients who presented cardiac complications refractory to medical therapy gave birth to healthy children. Worse maternal prognosis was correlated with emergency surgery.
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Arq. Bras. Cardiol. · Mar 2009
ReviewSystematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic and prognostic studies: a tutorial.
Systematic reviews with meta-analysis of studies on diagnostic tests or prognostic factors are research tools that are still being developed. The objective of the present paper is to describe the methodology of systematic review and meta-analysis of this type of studies, step by step. ⋯ References for the details of each statistical technique used were provided in the meta-analysis. We concluded that systematic reviews with meta-analysis of diagnostic tests or prognostic factors are useful in data compilation of various studies on the same subject, since they reduce biases and increase the statistical power of the primary research.