Predictors of Hospital Mortality in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome Complicated by Cardiogenic Shock.

As demonstrated by earlier studies, pre-hospital triage with trans-telephonic electrocardiogram (TTECG) and direct referral for catheter therapy shows great value in the management of out-of-hospital chest pain emergencies. It does not only improve in-hospital mortality in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, but it has also been identified as an independent predictor of higher in-hospital survival rate. Since TTECG-facilitated triage shortens both transport time and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)-related procedural time intervals, it was hypothesized that even high-risk patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and cardiogenic shock (CS) might also benefit from TTECG-based triage.

[Diagnosis of diabetic cardiac autonomic neuropathy].

Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a common complication in type 1 and 2 diabetes and is defined as the impairment of autonomic control of the cardiovascular system. CAN is strongly associated with increased mortality, and in some studies with morbidity of vascular complications, such as stroke, coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. At the early stages, CAN can be subclinical and it becomes clinically evident as the disease progresses.

High-fat diet-induced obesity leads to increased NO sensitivity of rat coronary arterioles: role of soluble guanylate cyclase activation.

The impact of obesity on nitric oxide (NO)-mediated coronary microvascular responses is poorly understood. Thus NO-mediated vasomotor responses were investigated in pressurized coronary arterioles ( approximately 100 microm) isolated from lean (on normal diet) and obese (fed with 60% of saturated fat) rats. We found that dilations to acetylcholine (ACh) were not significantly different in obese and lean rats (lean, 83 +/- 4%; and obese, 85 +/- 3% at 1 microM), yet the inhibition of NO synthesis with N(omega)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester reduced ACh-induced dilations only in vessels of lean controls.

Adaptation of vasomotor function of human coronary arterioles to the simultaneous presence of obesity and hypertension.

Objectives: We hypothesized that simultaneous presence of obesity and hypertension activates adaptive vascular mechanisms affecting dilations of human coronary arterioles.

Methods And Results: Agonist-induced dilations were assessed in isolated pressurized coronary arterioles from patients (n=38) who underwent cardiac surgery. Among normotensives we found that dilations to bradykinin (BK) and the NO-donor, sodium-nitroprusside (SNP) were reduced in obese subjects (BK, 10(-7) mol/L, lean: 90+/-4%, obese: 64+/-7%; SNP, 10(-6) mol/L, lean: 89+/-7%, obese: 76+/-5%).

Atherosclerosis of the descending aorta predicts cardiovascular events: a transesophageal echocardiography study.

Purpose: Previous studies have shown that atherosclerosis of the descending aorta detected by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a good marker of coexisting coronary artery disease. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether the presence of atherosclerosis on the descending aorta during TEE has any prognostic impact in predicting cardiovascular events.

Material And Methods: The study group consisted of 238 consecutive in-hospital patients referred for TEE testing (135 males, 103 females, mean age 58 +/- 11 years) with a follow up of 24 months.