Global Cardiology Science and Practice - Volume 2015, Issue 3

The Cardiothoracic Surgery Trials Network has reported results of the one-year follow up of their randomized trial “Surgical Treatment of Moderate Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation”. They studied 301 patients with moderate ischemic mitral regurgitation (IMR) undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with or without mitral repair with the primary end-point of change in left ventricular end-diastolic volume index (LVEDVI) at one year a Read More

A disease that is associated with stroke and mortality, atrial fibrillation (AF) complicates 30 to 50% of mitral valve disease patients admitted for surgery.1 Since the introduction of the Cox maze III procedure in 1992 many efforts have been made to come up with modified lesion sets and/or energy sources to surgically treat AF. This lead to the recently published American Heart Association (AHA)– American College of Cardiology (ACC)–Heart Rhyt Read More

Contrary to its central role in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in stable ischemic heart disease (SIHD) remains largely restricted to patients in whom medical treatment fails to control symptoms, or those with a large area of myocardium at risk and/or high risk findings on non-invasive testing.1,2 These recommendations are based on a number of studies – the largest of which is COU Read More

The Copenhagen City Heart Study, also known as “Østerbroundersøgelsen”, is a large prospective cardio-vascular population study of 20,000 women and men that was launched in 1975 by Dr Peter Schnohr and Dr Gorm Jensen together with statistician Jørgen Nyboe and Prof. A. Tybjærg Hansen. The original purpose of the study was to focus on prevention of coronary heart disease and stroke. During the years many other aspects have be Read More

In a recent article in the Journal, we have reviewed the adverse cardiovascular outcomes observed with digoxin use in the PALLAS study.1 The PALLAS study was designed to determine if dronedarone would reduce major vascular events in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (AF).2 However the study was stopped early because of safety reasons, as a significant number of patients on the dronedarone arm reached the co-primary end Read More

One of the most intriguing aspects of cell biology is the state of pluripotency, where the cell is capable of self-renewal for as many times as deemed “necessary”, then at a specified time can differentiate into any type of cell. This fundamental process is required during organogenesis in foetal life and importantly during tissue repair in health and disease. Pluripotency is very tightly regulated, as any dysregulation can result in congenital def Read More

Microparticles, in the context of this review, are defined as plasma membrane derived-particles shed by various types of vascular and blood cells in response to different stimuli. They were first described as products of platelet activation or “platelet dust”, however microparticles are now ascribed prominent roles in cardiovascular diseases and contribute to the regulation of pathophysiological processes including, endothelial function, in Read More

Recent technological advances in cardiology have resulted in new guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. Despite these improvements, sudden death remains one of the main challenges to clinicians because the majority of diseases associated with sudden cardiac death are characterized by incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. Hence, patients may be unaware of their illness, and physical activity Read More

Background: Although essentially disappeared from the industrialized world, rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is still prevalent in developing countries, with 300,000 new cases identified each year. In Aswan, Egypt, RHD affects about 2.3% of children with over 90% of the cases being subclinical. Secondary prophylaxis has proved to be an effective method of preventing the progression of RHD. However, its efficacy is limited by low patient adhere Read More

Given the increasing numbers of cardiac device implantations worldwide, it is important to determine whether permanent endocardial leads across the tricuspid valve can promote tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Virtually all current data is retrospective, and indicates a signal of TR being increased after permanent lead implantation. However, the precise incidence of moderate or greater TR post-procedure, the exact mechanisms (mechanica Read More

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a serious complication of congenital heart disease, causing an increase in morbidity and mortality. The progressive and irreversible pulmonary vascular disease is more often the consequence of a significant, uncorrected, left-to-right shunt. The rise in pulmonary vascular resistance may lead to the reversal of the shunt and cyanosis, condition known as Eisenmenger syndrome. The manage Read More