Publications by authors named "Francesco Loizzi"

Article Synopsis
  • A variety of conditions, both related to blood flow and not, can lead to ST-segment elevation (STE) on an ECG, one of which is the rare Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) often linked to low calcium levels.
  • This paper discusses a unique case of a 75-year-old woman with advanced ovarian cancer, who showed signs on her ECG resembling a heart attack but was actually caused by severe hypocalcemia, with no prior heart issues.
  • After ruling out coronary artery disease and providing calcium treatment, her heart function and ECG readings returned to normal, emphasizing the need to consider unusual causes of STE like hypocalcemia in patients with cancer.
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Arrhythmic risk stratification in patients with Lamin A/C gene (LMNA)-related cardiomyopathy influences clinical decisions. An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) should be considered in patients with an estimated 5-year risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmia (MVA) of ≥10%. The risk prediction score for MVA includes non-missense LMNA mutations, despite their role as an established risk factor for sudden cardiac death (SCD) has been questioned in several studies.

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Objectives: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) represents the standard treatment for ST-elevated myocardial infarction, nevertheless, mortality and heart failures are frequent. Pressure-controlled intermittent coronary sinus occlusion (PiCSO) might reduce infarct size showing better patients' outcomes. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of PCI+PiCSO compared to PCI from the National Healthcare Service (NHS) perspective in Italy.

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Background: Surgical mortality risk scores, even if not properly designed and rarely tested in the transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) setting, still guide the heart team in managing significant aortic stenosis.

Methods: After splitting 1763 consecutive patients retrospectively based on their mortality risk thresholds, the composite endpoint early safety (ES) was adjudicated according to Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC)-2 and -3 consensus documents.

Results: ES incidence was higher if VARC-2 rather than VARC-3 defined.

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Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a frequent complication associated with adverse outcomes and mortality. Various scores have been developed to predict this complication in the coronary setting. However, none have ever been tested in a large TAVI population.

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Background: Laminopathies are rare diseases, whose cardiac manifestations are heterogeneous and, especially in their initial stage, similar to those of more common conditions, such as ischemic heart disease. Early diagnosis is essential, as these conditions can first manifest themselves with sudden cardiac death. Electrical complications usually appear before structural complications; therefore, it is important to take into consideration these rare genetic disorders for the differential diagnosis of brady and tachyarrhythmias, even when left ventricle systolic function is still preserved.

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Performing transcatheter aortic valve implantation with high implantation technique, i.e. with an aorto-ventricular ratio > 60/40, reduces the need of permanent pacemaker implantation.

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A comprehensive description of baseline characteristics, procedural features and outcomes related to the development of acute kidney injury (AKI) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is reported in our research paper (). Three Italian heart centers were involved in this multicentric observational study. Between March 2011 and February 2019, a total of 888 patients underwent TAVI; according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 697 patients were included in the post-hoc analysis.

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Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is frequent and associated with adverse outcomes and mortality; to date, in such setting of patients there is no consistent evidence that either low-osmolar contrast media (LOCM) or iso-osmolar contrast medium (IOCM) are superior to the other in terms of renal safety.

Methods: 697 consecutive patients not in hemodialysis treatment who underwent TAVI (327 males, mean age 81.01 ± 5.

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