New pattern of atypical advanced interatrial block.

Introduction: Interatrial block (IAB) is defined as prolonged P-wave duration (≥ 120 ms) due to delayed conduction in the Bachmann bundle. This is readily identifiable using surface electrocardiogram (ECG). Advanced IAB can be classified as typical and atypical.

The S1S2S3 electrocardiographic pattern - Prevalence and relation to cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases in the general population.

Background: There is lack of studies exploring the incidence and association with diseases of the S1S2S3 electrocardiogram (ECG) pattern in the general population.

Subjects And Methods: This population study included 6299 individuals aged 30+, and explored the prevalence and association between S1S2S3 and cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Criteria for the S1S2S3-I and S1S2S3-II ECG pattern were fulfilled when there was an S wave in the leads I, II and III, and the S-wave amplitude was greater than the R-wave amplitude in one or two of the leads, respectively.

Solving the Gap Between HCV Detection and Treatment in Prison HCVRNA Testing and Treatment in a Cohort of Newly Arrived Convicts in Southern Italy.

Introduction: HCV infection elimination is set to be carried out by 2030. To achieve this goal, the WHO has set minor achievable short-term "mini-goals." One of these is treating "difficult to reach and treat populations," such as prisoners.

HCV point-of-care screening programme and treatment options for people who use drugs in a metropolitan area of Southern Italy.

Background And Aims: People who use drugs (PWUD) represent an active reservoir of HCV infection. The prevalence of chronic HCV infection in PWUD in Italy remains unknown because of the lack of systematic screening. Thanks to direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs), hepatitis C can now be cured in most patients.

Sustained virological response by direct antiviral agents in HCV leads to an early and significant improvement of liver fibrosis.

Background: Direct antiviral agents (DAA) demonstrated high efficacy among HCV-infected patients in registered trials. Nevertheless, the impact of these therapies on liver stiffness measurement (LSM) and liver functionality in 'real-life' is not well-known. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the sustained virological response (SVR) impact on LSM and clinical parameters of DAA-therapy on a real-life population of HCV patients with F3/F4 fibrosis.

Rationale and design of the BAYES (Interatrial Block and Yearly Events) registry.

The prevalence of interatrial block (IAB) is high in the elderly, particularly in those with heart disease. Despite this high prevalence-and the association of IAB with the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), stroke, and cognitive decline-little information exists about the prognosis of older patients with IAB. P-wave duration and morphology are associated with risk of developing AF, stroke, and cognitive decline in elderly patients with structural heart disease.

Impact of Telaprevir in HCV Patients with Cirrhosis and RVR: Real-Life Data from Boceprevir or Telaprevir based "Triple Therapy" Experience in Southern Italy.

Unlabelled: Background and Rationale of Study: The real-life data of triple therapy-based treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C were investigated in this survey of 12 clinical centers of southern Italy. This retrospective study analyzed data from 176 consecutive patients.

Methods: 125 (70%) patients were treated with telaprevir, and 51(30%) with boceprevir.

The Diagnosis and Clinical Implications of Interatrial Block.

Impaired interatrial conduction or interatrial block is now well-documented but is not described as an individual electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern in the majority of ECG literature. In fact the term has been adopted to encompass both left atrial enlargement (LAE) and interatrial block. In this paper, we maintain that interatrial blocks and atrial enlargement are separate entities, and that interatrial blocks, similar to other types of blocks at sinoatrial, AV junctional, and ventricular level, exhibit a specific ECG pattern that may present first, second, and third degree types of conduction block.

HCV antiviral therapy in injection drug users: difficult to treat or easy to cure?

Unlabelled: Background and rationale of the study. Hepatitis C infection is very common among injection drug users(IDUs). In clinical practice there is reluctance to treat IDUs, because considered difficult-to-treat.

Evaluation of acceleration and deceleration cardiac processes using phase-rectified signal averaging in healthy and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy subjects.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the suitability of the Phase-Rectified Signal Averaging (PRSA) method for improved risk prediction in cardiac patients. Moreover, this technique, which separately evaluates acceleration and deceleration processes of cardiac rhythm, allows the effect of sympathetic and vagal modulations of beat-to-beat intervals to be characterized. Holter recordings of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) patients were analyzed: high-risk (HR), who suffered sudden cardiac death (SCD) during the follow-up; and low-risk (LR), without any kind of cardiac-related death.

Symbolic dynamics to discriminate healthy and ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy populations: an application to the variability of heart period and QT interval.

Myocardial ischaemia is hypothesized to stimulate the cardiac sympathetic excitatory afferents and, therefore, the spontaneous changes of heart period (approximated as the RR interval), and the QT interval in ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) patients might reflect this sympathetic activation. Symbolic analysis is a nonlinear and powerful tool for the extraction and classification of patterns in time-series analysis, which implies a transformation of the original series into symbols and the construction of patterns with the symbols. The aim of this work was to investigate whether symbolic transformations of RR and QT cardiac series can provide a better separation between IDC patients and healthy control (HC) subjects compared with traditional linear measures.

Prinzmetal angina: ECG changes and clinical considerations: a consensus paper.

Background: We will focus our attention in this article in the ECG changes of classical Prinzmetal angina that occur during occlusive proximal coronary spasm usually in patients with normal or noncritical coronary stenosis.

Results: The most important ECG change during a focal proximal coronary spasm is in around 50% of cases the appearance of peaked and symmetrical T wave that is followed, if the spasm persist, by progressive ST-segment elevation that last for a few minutes, and later progressively resolve. The most frequent ECG changes associated with ST-segment elevation are: (a) increased height of the R wave, (b) coincident S-wave diminution, (c) upsloping TQ in many cases, and (d) alternans of the elevated ST-segment and negative T wave deepness in 20% of cases.

Negative T wave in ischemic heart disease: a consensus article.

Background: For many years was considered that negative T wave in ischemic heart disease represents ischemia and for many authors located in subepicardial area.

Methods: We performed a review based in the literature and in the experience of the authors commenting the real significance of the presence of negative T wave in patients with ischemic heart disease.

Results: The negative T wave may be of primary or secondary type.

The role of the ECG in diagnosis, risk estimation, and catheterization laboratory activation in patients with acute coronary syndromes: a consensus document.

The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the most widely used imaging tool helping in diagnosis and initial management of patients presenting with symptoms compatible with acute coronary syndrome. Acute ischemia affects the configuration of the QRS complexes, the ST segments and the T waves. The ECG should be read along with the clinical assessment of the patient.

New electrocardiographic features in Brugada syndrome.

Brugada syndrome is a genetically determined familial disease with autosomal dominant transmission and variable penetrance, conferring a predisposition to sudden cardiac death due to ventricular arrhythmias. The syndrome is characterized by a typical electrocardiographic pattern in the right precordial leads. This article will focus on the new electrocardiographic features recently agreed on by expert consensus helping to identify this infequent electrocardiographic pattern.

ECG diagnosis and classification of acute coronary syndromes.

In acute coronary syndromes, the electrocardiogram (ECG) provides important information about the presence, extent, and severity of myocardial ischemia. At times, the changes are typical and clear. In other instances, changes are subtle and might be recognized only when ECG recording is repeated after changes in the severity of symptoms.

Low atrial fibrillatory rate is associated with poor outcome in patients with mild to moderate heart failure.

Background: Atrial fibrillatory rate (AFR) is a measure of atrial remodeling caused by atrial fibrillation (AF), and its acceleration negatively affects outcome of interventions for persistent AF. However, the prognostic value of AFR in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) has not been studied. We sought to evaluate whether AFR can predict outcome in patients with mild to moderate (New York Health Association II-III) CHF.

Specific characteristics of sudden death in a mediterranean Spanish population.

Most of the data reported on sudden cardiac death has been from studies of Anglo-Saxon patients. We conducted a study to ascertain the relation between sudden death (SD) and some epidemiologic, clinical, and biochemical parameters and to assess the coronary histopathologic aspects of subjects in a Spanish population who had died suddenly. A total of 204 subjects (86% men), aged 12 to 80 years (mean 54 ± 15), who had died from out-of-hospital natural SD were evaluated.