Safety and efficiency of a common and simplified protocol for pacemaker and defibrillator surveillance based on remote monitoring only: a long-term randomized trial (RM-ALONE).

Aims: This trial aimed to evaluate the safety and efficiency of a common and simplified protocol for the surveillance of cardiac implantable electronic devices based on remote monitoring (RM) in patients with pacemakers (PMs) and implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) for at least 24 months.

Methods And Results: The RM-ALONE is a multicentre prospective trial that randomly assigned 445 patients in two groups, both followed by RM: the home monitoring-only (HMo) based on RM + remote interrogations (RIs) every 6 months and the HM + IO that adds in-office evaluations every 6 months to RM. Four hundred and forty-five patients were enrolled in the study, 294 PMs and 151 ICDs recipients.

Ischemia in women with angina and normal coronary angiograms.

Background: Coronary artery disease is frequent in postmenopausal women. Myocardial ischemia has been induced with stress testing, and a relationship between endothelial dysfunction and perfusion defects has been reported.

Objective: To evaluate whether myocardial ischemia can be evidenced both by perfusion and function abnormalities using gated single-photon emission computed-tomography myocardial scintigraphy with technetium-labeled compounds in women with typical angina, normal coronary angiography, and endothelial dysfunction.

Radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia in a patient with orthotopic heart transplantation by bicaval anastomosis.

Patients with orthotopic heart transplantation may have a variety of arrhythmias. There are reports of successful radiofrequency catheter ablation of some of them. Two months after orthotopic cardiac transplantation by bicaval anastomosis, a 49-year-old man developed episodes of tachycardia.

Mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia in women with angina and normal coronary angiograms.

Background: Coronary artery disease is frequent in postmenopausal women. Silent myocardial ischemia has been induced with mental stress testing.

Methods And Results: To evaluate whether mental stress can induce ischemia in women with typical angina and normal coronary angiography, postmenopausal patients (n = 16) were studied.