Risk of malignancy long after acute coronary syndrome in selected urban and rural areas and comparison with smoking risk: the ABC-7* study on Heart Disease.

Background: Increased cancer risk has been reported in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Objectives: To investigate geographic differences in risk malignancy long after ACS.

Methods: We enrolled 586 ACS patients admitted to hospitals in three provinces in the Veneto region of Italy in this prospective study.

Association between plasma lipid levels during acute coronary syndrome and long-term malignancy risk. The ABC-4* study on heart disease.

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that patients with coronary artery disease carry an increased risk of developing malignancy, with deleterious effects on long-term prognosis. Our aim was to ascertain whether baseline plasma lipid levels during acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are associated with malignancy in long-term.

Methods: This study included 589 patients admitted with ACS to three centers and discharged alive.

Neoplastic disease after acute coronary syndrome: incidence, duration, and features: the ABC-4* Study on Heart Disease.

Aim: To investigate the clinical features and incidence of malignant neoplasia during 17 years of follow-up in an unselected sample of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Methods: The Adria, Bassano, Conegliano, and Padova Hospital-4 Study on Heart Disease is an ongoing, prospective study of an unbiased population of patients with ACS. Baseline clinical and laboratory data were obtained during the first 7 days of hospitalization at three different intensive coronary care units.

Heart failure in women and men during acute coronary syndrome and long-term cardiovascular mortality (the ABC-3* Study on Heart Disease) (*Adria, Bassano, Conegliano, and Padova Hospitals).

Aims: We investigated the gender-based differences in the association between heart failure (HF) during acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and post-discharge, long-term cardiovascular (CV) mortality.

Methods And Results: The present study included 557 patients enrolled in three intensive coronary care units and discharged alive. HF during ACS was evaluated by Killip class and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

Gender differences and role of pregnancy in the history of post-surgical women affected by tetralogy of Fallot.

Background: The aim of this study was to describe gender differences in patients operated on for TOF and to define the impact of pregnancy in late post-surgical follow-up in women.

Methods: In this research, we studied 145 patients after correction of TOF: 66 male, 79 women, 41 of which reported history of 68 pregnancies, means age 37±10 years, age at operation 7±8 years, mean duration of post-surgical follow-up 30±7 years. Selected variables were compared according to sex and according to history of pregnancy with statistical tests.

A new view on congenital heart disease: clinical burden prevision of changing patients.

The introduction and diffusion of cross-sectional echocardiography at the end of 1970s significantly improved case ascertainment and allowed the identification of congenital heart defects with a significant increase of mild forms. However, the prevalence of severe congenital heart disease (CHD), which represented 11.7% of overall cardiovascular malformations, remained quite stable (less than 1 per 1000 live births).

Woman, 70 years of age, affected by ALCAPA without surgical repair.

Few cases of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery remain asymptomatic until adolescence, and it is very rare to find a patient with this disease reaching the age of 70 without having undergone any surgery. Up to now, there have been only three other cases of patients, more than 70 years of age, with this congenital heart effect described in medical literature. We report the clinical history and the cardiac morphofunctional findings of 12 years of follow-up after a very late diagnosis of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.

Electrocardiographic criteria of left ventricular hypertrophy in general population.

The question on whether the electrocardiographic criteria are reliable for detection of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and play a role in predicting outcome is open. Answer can only proceed from population-based studies over unselected people followed up for years. In this study, 1,699 subjects from general population underwent echocardiogram and standard electrocardiogram (ECG) codified for LVH with Minnesota code and with other five methods.