Metabolic syndrome and left ventricular function: is the number of criteria actually important?

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a clustering of cardiovascular risk factors responsible for the development of target organ damage. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the increasing number of MS risk factors on left ventricular function assessed by noninvasive methods.

Material/methods: The study included 204 subjects with MS and 76 controls with no MS risk factors.

Right ventricular myxoma obstructing the outflow tract.

Cardiac myxomas are benign tumors of endocardial origin. Symptoms might mimic heart disease as well as infectious disease, immunodeficiency, and malignant processes. We present the case of a 59-year-old female patient with a large right ventricular myxoma that was connected to the basal interventricular septum.

The long-term risk of stroke in patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated with new-onset atrial fibrillation.

Background: The long-term risk of stroke after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) complicated with new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term risk of AF and stroke in patients with AMI complicated with new-onset AF.

Methods: Patients with AMI complicated with new-onset AF (n = 260) and those without new-onset AF (n = 292) were followed for a mean of 7 years.

The incidence of difficult intubation in 2000 patients undergoing thyroid surgery--a single center expirience.

Background/aim: The incidence of difficult intubation (DI) is 1-10%, and DI leading to inability to intubate occurs in 0.04% of the population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of DI in thyroid surgery and to assess possible correlation of difficult tracheal intubation with sex and primary diagnosis.

[Plasma and red blood cell superoxide dismutase activity in patients with different stages of essential hypertension].

It has been suggested that superoxide dismutase (SOD) plays an important role in endothelial dysfunction in essential hypertension (EH), by competing with nitric oxide for superoxide, thus influencing nitric oxide bioavailability. To answer the question of whether endothelial dysfunction is consequence of altered SOD expression we determined SOD activity in patients with different stages of EH. In this study 45 EH patients and 25 normotensive subjects were included.

Time course of erythrocyte antioxidant activity in patients treated by thrombolysis for acute myocardial infarction.

The deleterious effects of free radicals in acute myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion are rather well known. However, the possibility that thrombolysis positively affects the recovery of blood antioxidant capacity in the later postinfarction period, and thus contributes to the better overall outcome of these patients, has not yet been investigated. We followed the time course of erythrocyte antioxidant activity in 45 patients with first acute myocardial infarction (AMI), who were treated with streptokinase.