Minor myocardial damage during percutaneous coronary intervention does not affect long-term prognosis.

Introduction And Objectives: To determine whether long-term prognosis is affected by myocardial damage taking place during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Methods: The study included consecutive patients undergoing PCI. Those with elevated baseline cardiac marker levels were excluded.

Long-term results (three to five years) of the Restenosis Intrastent: Balloon angioplasty versus elective Stenting (RIBS) randomized study.

Objectives: We sought to analyze the very late outcomes of patients treated for in-stent restenosis (ISR) according to treatment allocation and 10 prespecified variables.

Background: Long-term results (>2 years) of patients with ISR undergoing repeat coronary interventions are not well established.

Methods: The Restenosis Intrastent: Balloon angioplasty versus elective Stenting (RIBS) randomized study compared these two strategies in 450 patients with ISR.

Heart transplant recipient clinical profile improvement following mycophenolate mofetil late incorporation into the treatment schedule.

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) has a better clinical profile than azathioprine in heart transplantation (HT). Forty-five recipients (aged 53 +/- 9 yr) were retrospectively evaluated (first year of follow-up) post-MMF introduction since its advent in 1997 (mean daily dose: 1.97 +/- 0.

[Drug-eluting stents in patients with left main coronary lesions who are not candidates for surgical revascularization].

Introduction And Objectives: Surgical revascularization is the treatment of choice in patients with left main coronary artery stenosis. Conventional stents are not a valid alternative because of the rate of restenosis and sudden cardiac death. Drug-eluting stents, which reduce the rate of restenosis, may represent an alternative to cardiac surgery.

Persistence of lung function abnormalities despite sustained success of percutaneous mitral valvotomy: the need for an early indication.

Aims: We assessed early and long-term pulmonary function changes after percutaneous balloon mitral valvotomy (PBMV).

Methods And Results: Mitral area, lung function, and exercise capacity were evaluated before, immediately after, and 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after successful PBMV in 24 patients. PBMV resulted in a significant and sustained increase in mitral area, from 1.

Fatal interstitial pneumonitis associated with sirolimus therapy in a heart transplant recipient.

Interstitial pneumonitis is a temporary side effect of sirolimus therapy and has been described mainly in renal transplant recipients. It is considered to be dose dependent and has been documented in patients receiving at least 5 mg daily, or in patients with blood concentration plateaus > 15 ng/ml. In general, clinical and radiologic features improve after discontinuation and, to the best of our knowledge, no reports of fatalities have been published.

Heart transplantation and chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a successful case at 2 years of follow-up.

In June 2000, we successfully performed an orthotopic cardiac transplant in a 52-year-old man who, together with a B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (Binet Stage A, Rai Stage 1), also had end-stage dilated idiopathic myocardiopathy. We describe his case and the 2 years of cancer-free follow-up. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a heart transplant in this setting.

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection causing acute coronary syndrome: an early diagnosis implies a good prognosis.

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is an unusual cause of acute coronary syndrome. We describe a series of cases that with an early diagnosis and aggressive treatment, which includes percutaneous angioplasty with stent implantation and cardiac surgery, had a good outcome. The objective was to study the demographic characteristics, clinical settings, treatments, and inhospital course of patients with spontaneous coronary artery dissection.

Comparative tolerability of contrast media used for coronary interventions.

Radiographic contrast media (CM) are necessary to provide x-ray absorption of the bloodstream; all other observed effects need to be regarded as adverse. Four types of CM are currently used in diagnostic and interventional cardiology: ionic high-osmolar CM (HOCM), either ionic or non-ionic low-osmolar CM (LOCM), and non-ionic iso-osmolar CM (IOCM). Focusing on the potential cardiovascular effects caused by the CM, there is a clear difference between HOCM and the LOCM or IOCM.

Early dysfunction and long-term improvement in endothelium-dependent vasodilation in the infarct-related artery after thrombolysis.

Objectives: This study assessed the degree of endothelial dysfunction in post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and its subsequent status in the infarct-related artery (IRA) in patients treated with thrombolysis.

Background: Coronary flow reserve alterations in the IRA after thrombolysis have been described, but the endothelium-dependent vasomotion has not been investigated, to date.

Methods: Endothelial function in patients after thrombolysis was assessed by infusion of acetylcholine (ACh) at increasing doses in the IRA.