β-Blockers in coronary artery disease management.

Beta-blockers are a multiform group of drugs with multiple applications in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease. Their adverse actions are multiple and relate mainly to the β-adrenergic receptor blockade.They are used to treat all forms of coronary disease, but especially in acute myocardial infarction and acute coronary syndromes.

Detection of myocardial ischemia in the elderly versus the young by stress thallium-201 scintigraphy and its relation to important coronary artery disease.

The prevalence and severity of coronary atherosclerosis increase dramatically with age, so that more than half of all deaths in persons aged over 65 are due to coronary arterial disease (CAD) and about three fourths of all deaths from CAD occur in the elderly. The aims of our study were, first, to detect myocardial ischemia development in elderly versus younger patients undergoing treatment for known CAD through the use of both conventional treadmill testing and 201T1 scintigraphy, and second, to determine the relationship between the above non-invasive tests and angiographically confirmed important coronary artery disease (iCAD). A database of 606 patients (355 men and 251 women) who had undergone coronary angiography, exercise ECG testing (ETT) using the treadmill Bruce protocol, and 201T1 scintigraphy, was reviewed retrospectively.

Heart failure accompanied by sick euthyroid syndrome and exercise training.

Sick euthyroid syndrome is defined as the decrease of serum free triiodothyronine with normal free L-thyroxin and thyrotropin. Its appearance in patients with chronic heart failure is an indicator of severity. Exercise training through a wide variety of mechanisms reverses sick euthyroid syndrome (normalization of free triiodothyronine levels) and improves the ability to exercise.

Risk factors of ischaemic heart disease and long-term outcome after coronary bypass surgery.

Background: To investigate the effect of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) risk factors on the long-term course of patients who undergo coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, was the aim of our study.

Methods: We studied a total of 128 people, who were classified into 4 groups. Control Group A consisted of 24 healthy adults, Group B of 23 patients who underwent CABG for 3-vessel disease and had no complications in the first two postoperative years, Group C of 41 patients who were hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the first or second post-CABG year and Group D of 40 patients who were hospitalized for AMI without previous CABG.

Alterations in the fibrinolytic system components during acute myocardial infarction.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor - type 1 (PAI-1) and D-dimer (DD) antigen plasma levels in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients after thrombolytic therapy with two different thrombolytic agents, rt-PA or acetyl-streptokinase and to find out any correlation between the plasma t-PA, PAI-1 and DD levels with the infarct size as it is estimated from the peak of serum CPK levels. The plasma antigen levels of t-PA, PAI-1 and DD were measured by the enzyme immunoassay method (Stago), in 57 consecutive patients (M = 46, F = 11, mean age 55.6 +/- 8.