Increased monocyte-to-HDL cholesterol ratio is related to cardiac syndrome X.

Objective: Cardiac syndrome X (CSX) is typically identified with ischaemia in treadmill exercise test or stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy as well as angina-like chest pain without stenosis in coronary angiography. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the association between cardiac syndrome X and monocyte-to-HDL cholesterol ratio (MHR) which is a new marker associated with inflammation.

Patients And Methods: A total of 230 patients (105 patients with cardiac syndrome X and 125 normal controls) were included in the study.

The usefulness of plateletcrit to predict cardiac syndrome X in patients with normal coronary angiogram.

Introduction: Cardiac syndrome X (CSX) is a clinical entity defined as the triad of typical angina pectoris on exercise, electrocardiographic or metabolic findings of ischemia and normal epicardial coronary arteries. Platelets, whose amount in the blood is indicated with plateletcrit (PCT), play an important role in inflammatory and thrombotic processes and the physiopathology of cardiovascular events.

Aim: To investigate the association between cardiac syndrome X and PCT and platelet count.

[Evaluation of subclinical atherosclerosis in chronic sinusitis patients].

Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of chronic sinusitis (CS) on carotid-intima-media thickness (CIMT), a marker of early atherosclerotic changes in the arterial bed.

Methods: The study included 50 patients with CS (25 male, 25 female, mean age 26.6 ± 5.

Coronary sinus dilatation is a sign of impaired right ventricular function in patients with heart failure.

Objective: The coronary sinus (CS) has been largely ignored by physicians due to a lack of adequate data about the importance of CS enlargement in patients with heart failure (HF). We aimed to assess whether CS dilatation develops in patients with HF and to demonstrate its relation with global myocardial function of the right ventricle (RV).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 45 healthy subjects and 95 HF patients exhibiting left ventricular systolic dysfunction on echocardiographic examination (EF <45%) secondary to ischemic (n=56) or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (n=39) were enrolled.

Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio predicts poor functional capacity in patients with heart failure.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the relationship between neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (N/L ratio) and functional capacity (FC) of patients with compensated heart failure (CHF).

Study Design: A total of 94 consecutive CHF patients and age-gender matched 70 subjects with normal echocardiographic examination were enrolled. Peripheral venous blood samples were drawn before echocardiography examination and treadmill test in all study population.

Negative effects of acute sleep deprivation on left ventricular functions and cardiac repolarization in healthy young adults.

Background: Sleep deprivation (SD) is associated with an increased incidence of adverse cardiovascular events, we aimed to determine the impact of acute SD on structural and functional alterations of the left ventricle (LV) and on electrocardiogram (ECG) markers including T wave peak-to-end interval (TpTe), QT interval, and TpTe/QT ratio in healthy subjects after a night of SD.

Methods: The study population consisted of 40 healthy young adults (19 males, 21 females; mean age: 28.2 ± 3.

Effects of lying position on P-wave dispersion in patients with heart failure.

Objective: It was the aim of this study to investigate the effects of the right lateral decubitus, left lateral decubitus and supine lying position on P-wave dispersion (PWD) in patients with heart failure (HF).

Subjects And Methods: Seventeen patients with HF whose ejection fraction was <35% were included in the study. Right lateral decubitus, left lateral decubitus and supine electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings were obtained.

Predictors of thrombus burden and no-reflow of infarct-related artery in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: importance of platelet indices.

Preprocedural high-thrombus burden (HTB) of infarct-related artery (IRA) is a harbinger of procedural complications following primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The HTB of IRA can lead to poor outcomes by various mechanisms, including no-reflow phenomenon, increased myocardial necrosis and with subsequent reduced survival benefit at follow-up. In this study, we investigated the relationship between all platelet indices on admission and thrombus burden and the no-reflow phenomenon after primary PCI of IRA in patients with STEMI.

Impaired circadian rhythm of blood pressure in normotensive patients with rheumatic mitral valve stenosis.

Background: The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to evaluate either non-dipper-type or dipper-type circadian rhythm of blood pressure (BP) in normotensive rheumatic mitral stenosis (MS) patients.

Methods And Results: Eighty-eight normotensive rheumatic mitral valve disease (RMVD) patients and 41 normal participants were enrolled in the study. All participants underwent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Coronary artery tortuosity: comparison with retinal arteries and carotid intima-media thickness.

Background And Aim: We conducted a prospective study to investigate the possible relationship between the tortuosity of coronary arteries (TCA) and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and also compare TCA to retinal artery tortuosity.

Methods: One hundred and five participants with nonsignificant coronary plaque or normal coronary angiogram were included. To determine subclinical atherosclerosis, maximum CIMT was measured.

[A case of idiopathic ventricular tachycardia in a 14-year-old obese patient due to golden berry fruit extract pills for weight loss].

Several studies have determined an association between obesity and increased risk of cardiac arrhythmia. Currently, due to the increased frequency of obesity, food-, plant-, and drug-based therapies for weight loss have gained great attention. A 14-year-old female patient presented with complaints of palpitation of one-hour onset.

A novel echocardiographic method for the detection of subclinical atherosclerosis in newly diagnosed, untreated type 2 diabetes.

Background: Diabetes accelerates the natural process of atherosclerosis and is a predictor for progression of atherosclerotic lesions. To improve clinical outcomes, noninvasive imaging modalities have been proposed to measure and monitor atherosclerosis. Recently, it has been shown that the color M-mode-derived propagation velocity of the descending thoracic aorta (aortic velocity propagation [AVP]) was associated with coronary and carotid atherosclerosis.

Giant pulmonary artery aneurysm: 12 years of follow-up. case report and review of the literature.

Pulmonary artery aneurysm (PAA) is defined as pulmonary artery diameter of greater than 4 cm. PAA is not frequently encountered in clinical practice. There is a rare report in giant low-pressure PAA in terms of long-term follow-up.

[Closure of secundum atrial septal defects by the Amplatzer occluder device].

Objectives: Percutaneous closure of secundum atrial septal defects (ASD) has become an important alternative treatment to surgery. We evaluated our clinical experience with, and short-term results of transcatheter closure of ASDs with the Amplatzer septal occluder in adult patients.

Study Design: The study included 52 patients (36 women, 16 men; mean age 33±14 years; range 14 to 69 years) who underwent transcatheter ASD closure with the Amplatzer occluder device.

Relationship between mean platelet volume and atrial thrombus in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Platelets and clotting cascade play a major role in development of atrial thrombus in patients with atrial fibrillation. The mean platelet volume (MPV) reflects platelet size and is considered a marker and determinant of platelet function because larger platelets are hemostatically more reactive than platelets of normal size, increasing the propensity to thrombosis. We have investigated the relationship between MPV and left atrial thrombus in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation.

Fragmented QRS is predictive of myocardial dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension and severity in mitral stenosis.

Reliable non-invasive new indices reflecting severity of rheumatic valve disease would be highly beneficial. Recently, presence of fragmented QRS (fQRS) in ECG was accepted as a marker of myocardial fibrosis. fQRS is defined as the presence of RSR' patterns such as additional R wave (R'), notching in the R wave or the S wave in 2 contiguous leads.

Coronary sinus dilatation is associated with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and poor functional status in subjects with chronic heart failure.

Reliable echocardiographic markers additional to plasma biomarkers that would establish prognosis of chronic heart failure and guide therapeutic approach would be beneficial. In our hypothesis, echocardiographic assessment of coronary sinus anatomic alteration, which has been ignored, may be part of remodeling process in heart failure. We also aimed to evaluate relationship between coronary sinus anatomic alteration and left ventricular systolic dysfunction.

Coronary sinus dilatation. A simple additional echocardiographic indicator of severe rheumatic mitral and tricuspid valve disease.

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of examining the coronary sinus (CS) anatomic diameter as an additional surrogate marker of severity in chronic rheumatic valve disease (RVD).

Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, we echocardiographically analyzed 88 patients with RVD, and 104 normal subjects in the Department of Cardiology, Gaziantep University Medical Faculty, Gaziantep, Turkey between February 2007 and April 2007. Echocardiographically all valve regurgitation, stenosis, left ventricular function, left/right atrial volume, and pulmonary artery pressure were obtained.

[Echocardiography-guided pericardiocentesis with the apical approach].

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate our experience with echocardiography-guided pericardiocentesis with the apical approach for pericardial effusions.

Study Design: We evaluated 32 pericardiocenteses performed under echocardiography guidance and with the apical approach in 29 patients (15 men, 14 women; mean age 49 years; range 18 to 72 years). Indications were diagnostic purpose, pericardial tamponade, or symptomatic pericardial effusion.