Publications by authors named "Farnaz Azarbal"

Objectives: Limited studies of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of the left internal mammary artery (LIMA) graft exist. We compared outcomes of different bypass grafts to the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery.

Methods: Participants ≥65 years old in the CathPCI Registry who underwent PCI of a bypass graft to the LAD between 2009 and 2014 were included.

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Several new coronary stents have been, or soon will be, introduced in the United States. These stents incorporate certain characteristics, such as polymer-free drug coatings, ultrathin stent struts, bioresorbable polymers, and composite materials, that address currently unmet clinical needs to enhance acute stent performance, improve longer-term clinical outcomes, and obviate obligatory prolonged dual antiplatelet therapy. This article reviews the key and novel features of these stents.

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Warfarin prevents stroke and prolongs survival in patients with atrial fibrillation and flutter (AF, collectively) but can cause hemorrhage. The time in international normalized ratio (INR) therapeutic range (TTR) mediates stroke reduction and bleeding risk. This study sought to determine the relation between baseline stroke, bleeding risk, and TTR.

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Objectives: Higher body mass index (BMI) is an important risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). The adipokines leptin, adiponectin and resistin are correlates of BMI, but their association with incident AF is not well known. We explored this relationship in a large cohort of postmenopausal women.

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The influence of race on quality of anticoagulation control is not well described. We examined the association between race, international normalized ratio (INR) monitoring intensity, and INR control in warfarin-treated patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Using data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), we performed a retrospective cohort study of 184,161 patients with a new diagnosis of AF/flutter from 2004 to 2012 who received any VHA prescription within 90 days of diagnosis.

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Aims: High body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). The aim of this study was to determine whether lean body mass (LBM) predicts AF.

Methods And Results: The Women's Health Initiative is a study of post-menopausal women aged 50-79 enrolled at 40 US centres from 1994 to 1998.

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Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with increased risk of stroke and death. Obesity is an independent risk factor for AF, but modifiers of this risk are not well known. We studied the roles of obesity, physical activity, and their interaction in conferring risk of incident AF.

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This study sought to determine whether left atrial (LA) dysfunction independently predicts ischemic stroke. Atrial fibrillation (AF) impairs LA function and is associated with ischemic stroke. However, ischemic stroke frequently occurs in patients without known AF.

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The predictive ability of the CHADS2 index to stratify stroke risk may be mechanistically linked to severity of left atrial (LA) dysfunction. This study investigated the association between the CHADS2 score and LA function. We performed resting transthoracic echocardiography in 970 patients with stable coronary heart disease and normal ejection fraction and calculated baseline LA functional index (LAFI) using a validated formula: (LA emptying fraction×left ventricular outflow tract velocity time integral)/LA end-systolic volume indexed to body surface area.

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Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia among patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The relationship between paroxysmal AF and exercise capacity in this population is incompletely understood.

Methods: Patients with HCM underwent symptom-limited cardiopulmonary testing with expired gas analysis at Stanford Hospital between October 2006 and October 2012.

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The protein α-synuclein has a central role in Parkinson disease, but the mechanism by which it contributes to neural degeneration remains unknown. We now show that the expression of α-synuclein in mammalian cells, including neurons in vitro and in vivo, causes the fragmentation of mitochondria. The effect is specific for synuclein, with more fragmentation by α- than β- or γ-isoforms, and it is not accompanied by changes in the morphology of other organelles or in mitochondrial membrane potential.

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