Identification of cardiovascular risk factors associated with bone marrow cell subsets in patients with STEMI: a biorepository evaluation from the CCTRN TIME and LateTIME clinical trials.

Autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell (BM-MNC) therapy for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) has produced inconsistent results, possibly due to BM-MNC product heterogeneity. Patient-specific cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) may contribute to variations in BM-MNC composition. We sought to identify associations between BM-MNC subset frequencies and specific CRFs in STEMI patients.

Prosthesis-patient mismatch affects long-term survival after mechanical valve replacement.

Objective: We sought to examine the relationship between the degree of prosthesis-patient mismatch and long-term survival after mechanical aortic valve replacement.

Methods: Prospectively collected long-term follow-up data from 469 consecutive patients who underwent aortic valve replacement between 1995 and 1998 were reviewed. The indexed effective orifice area was derived from the reference normal values of effective orifice area divided by the patient's body surface area.

Right-to-left interatrial shunt with hypoxemia caused by a right atrial thrombus.

A right-to-left shunt in the presence of normal pulmonary artery pressure is an unusual cause of hypoxemia in an adult who has a patent foramen ovale. We report a rare case of such a shunt-the result of a right atrial thrombus that formed in a hypercoagulable patient after placement of an indwelling central venous catheter for chemotherapy. In order to ascertain the nature of the right atrial mass and to decrease the risk of systemic embolization, the thrombus was surgically removed with the patient on cardiopulmonary bypass.