Comparison of methods to identify individuals at increased risk of cardiovascular disease in Italian cohorts.

Background And Aims: Guidelines for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease recommend the use of risk-assessment methods to identify high risk patients who can benefit from lifestyle changes and/or drug treatment. Although all these risk-prediction methods are based on the same principle, they produce different risk estimates. The aim of this study was to compare the most recent and widely used cardiovascular risk-prediction methods and the respective guidelines when applied to Italian cohorts.

Increased cardiac troponin I on admission predicts in-hospital mortality in acute pulmonary embolism.

Background: To investigate the frequency of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) increases in patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) and to assess the correlation between this finding, the clinical presentation, and outcomes.

Methods: Consecutive patients admitted to the coronary care unit with acute PE were prospectively enrolled between January 2000 and December 2001. cTnI was sequentially determined.

Serum cardiac troponin I levels and ECG/Echo monitoring in breast cancer patients undergoing high-dose (7 g/m(2)) cyclophosphamide.

High-dose cyclophosphamide (HD-CTX) is largely employed in high-dose chemotherapy (HD-CHT) protocols. HD-CTX dose-limiting toxicity expresses itself as cardiac toxicity which is fatal in a minority of patients. The pathophysiology of HD-CTX-associated cardiotoxicity is still poorly understood.

[Assessment of cardiotoxicity of high dose cyclophosphamide with electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, and troponin I monitoring in patients with breast tumors].

Background: High-dose cyclophosphamide is the nucleus for virtually all high-dose chemotherapy protocols. Non-hematologic dose-limiting toxicity is represented by acute cardiomyopathy, even fatal in a minority of patients. The pathophysiology of such a cardiotoxicity is still poorly understood.