Strong Relationship Between Vascular Function in the Coronary and Brachial Arteries.

Early detection of coronary artery dysfunction is of paramount cardiovascular clinical importance, but a noninvasive assessment is lacking. Indeed, the brachial artery flow-mediated dilation test only weakly correlated with acetylcholine-induced coronary artery function ( r=0.36).

Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary Emergency Department Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Program.

Despite advances in the medical and surgical management of cardiovascular disease, greater than 350,000 patients experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States annually, with only a 12% neurologically favorable survival rate. Of these patients, 23% have an initial shockable rhythm of ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT), a marker of high probability of acute coronary ischemia (80%) as the precipitating factor. However, few patients (22%) will experience return of spontaneous circulation and sufficient hemodynamic stability to undergo cardiac catheterization and revascularization.

Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Management in Prerenal Transplantation Candidates.

Cardiovascular (CV) assessment in prerenal transplant patients varies by center. Current guidelines recommend stress testing for candidates if ≥ 3 CV risk factors exist. We evaluated the CV assessment and management in 685 patients referred for kidney transplant over a 7-year period.

Intravenous electrocardiographic guidance for placement of peripherally inserted central catheters.

Background: Correct positioning of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) is essential to avoid complications. We evaluated intravenous electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings during PICC placement to assess the effectiveness of this guidance technique to reduce complications resulting from incorrect catheter placement.

Methods: Six patients undergoing PowerPICC catheter insertion were included in this pilot study.