Publications by authors named "Aaron Shekka Espinosa"
Background: ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and Takotsubo syndrome (TS) are two distinct cardiac conditions that both result in sudden loss of cardiac dysfunction and that are difficult to distinguish clinically. This study compared plasma protein changes in 24 women with STEMI and 12 women with TS in the acute phase (days 0-3 post symptom onset) and the stabilization phase (days 7, 14, and 30) to examine the molecular differences between these conditions.
Methods: Plasma proteins from STEMI and TS patients were extracted during the acute and stabilization phases and analyzed via quantitative proteomics.
Aims: Adequate animal models are necessary to understand human conditions, such as takotsubo syndrome (TS) characterized by the heart's transient regional wall motion abnormalities. This study aims to develop a reproducible, low-mortality TS model that closely mimics the human condition and addresses the limitations of existing models.
Methods And Results: We conducted six experiments using 309 Sprague Dawley rats, each approximately 300 g and aged 7-8 weeks.
Background And Aims: Ischemic preconditioning (IPC), i.e., brief periods of ischemia, protect the heart from subsequent prolonged ischemic injury, and reduces infarction size.
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- The study aimed to improve the assessment of left ventricular wall motion abnormalities (WMAs) by introducing new measurement methods and comparing them to traditional scoring indices like the wall motion score index (WMSI).
- Researchers analyzed 140 echocardiograms from patients with serious heart issues, focusing on various metrics for measuring wall motion, including the percentage of akinesia and hypokinesia.
- Results showed that the new methods demonstrated low inter- and intra-observer variability, making them reliable alternatives for evaluating WMAs in echocardiographic exams.
Article Synopsis
- The study compares ECG changes over 30 days between female patients with anterior STEMI (a type of heart attack) and female patients with Takotsubo syndrome (a stress-induced heart condition).
- It found that T wave inversion patterns were similar in both groups, but ST elevation was more common in STEMI, while QT prolongation was less frequent.
- Overall, the ECG patterns suggest that TTS may show a temporary ischemic-like pattern, indicating similarities in heart stress responses between these conditions.
Differences between cardiac troponin I vs. T according to the duration of myocardial ischaemia.
Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care
June 2023
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the levels of cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and troponin I (hs-cTnI) during and after different durations of myocardial ischaemia (lack of blood flow) in both rats and human patients with heart attacks (STEMI).
- Results show that after short periods of ischaemia, hs-cTnI and hs-cTnT levels rise similarly, leading to a ratio of around 1, indicating non-necrotic cTn release.
- In contrast, longer ischaemia that results in heart tissue damage shows a significantly higher hs-cTnI/hs-cTnT ratio (3.6-5.5),
Article Synopsis
- A study was conducted to compare the electrocardiogram (ECG) results of Takotsubo syndrome (STE-TS) patients with those diagnosed with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), ensuring balanced age and sex groups and considering the specific locations of blockages in STEMI patients.
- The analysis included 104 STE-TS patients matched to 274 STEMI patients, revealing that STE-TS ECGs closely resembled those of patients with left anterior descending artery (LAD) STEMI, but with significantly less occurrence of reciprocal ST depression.
- Findings indicated that while certain ST segment changes were predictive of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia and death in LAD STEMI patients, these changes did not demonstrate predictive value
Aims: The risk of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias (LTVA) has been reported to be lower in Takotsubo syndrome (TS) compared with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, the extent to which these differences relate to the fact that most patients with TS are women (who have a lower risk of LTVA) and a relatively larger proportion of patients with STEMI are men is incompletely understood. We aimed to investigate the risk of LTVA or death in sex-matched and age-matched patients with TS, anterior STEMI, and non-anterior STEMI.
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- - Takotsubo syndrome (TS) is an acute heart failure condition that often resolves on its own, but can lead to serious complications and is hard to differentiate from a heart attack early on.
- - A systematic review outlines the clinical management of TS, covering its diagnosis, treatment after diagnosis, and recovery phase.
- - The review suggests avoiding unnecessary treatments due to TS's self-limiting nature and emphasizes monitoring patients closely, avoiding inotropic drugs, and considering mechanical assist devices for those with severe symptoms.