Publications by authors named "Giovanna Pedrazzini"
Background: We studied the incidence of primary graft dysfunction (PGD), its impact on in-hospital and follow-up outcomes and searched for independent risk factors.
Methods: During an 18-year period, 508 individuals underwent heart transplantation at our institution. Patients were diagnosed with none, mild, moderate or severe PGD according to ISHLT criteria.
Cangrelor is an intravenously administered P2Y receptor antagonist, which has been approved for adult patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and, due to its unique pharmacokinetics, it allows effective and controllable peri-procedural platelet inhibition. We report the case of a 6-year-old child with anomalous origin of right coronary artery from aortic left coronary sinus, who underwent elective surgical replacement of stenotic and calcified conduit between the right ventricle and the main pulmonary artery. The surgery was complicated by acute myocardial infarction secondary to coronary extrinsic compression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA prospective comparison of mid-term outcomes in patients treated with heart transplantation with advanced age donors versus left ventricular assist device implantation.
Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg
October 2016
Objectives: In Europe, the age of heart donors is constantly increasing. Ageing of heart donors limits the probability of success of heart transplantation (HTx). The aim of this study is to compare the outcome of patients with advanced heart failure (HF) treated with a continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (CF-LVAD) with indication as bridge to transplantation (BTT) or bridge to candidacy (BTC) versus recipients of HTx with the donor's age above 55 years (HTx with donors >55 years).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Impaired manual dexterity is frequent and disabling in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), affecting activities of daily living (ADL) and quality of life.
Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a standardized, home-based training program to improve manual dexterity and dexterity-related ADL in MS patients.
Methods: This was a randomized, rater-blinded controlled trial.
Heart transplantation: 25 years' single-centre experience.
J Cardiovasc Med (Hagerstown)
September 2013
Objectives: Heart transplantation (HTx) is still one of the most effective therapies for end-stage heart disease for patients with no other medical or surgical therapy. We report the results of our 25-year orthotropic HTx single-centre experience.
Methods: From November 1985, 905 orthotopic heart transplants have been performed at our centre.
Heart transplantation was performed firstly in 1967, but it became a valuable option in the 1980s, due to the availability of cyclosporine and of the technique for rejection monitoring by means of serial endomyocardial biopsies. Post-transplant survival improved over the years, mainly due to a reduction in early mortality for infection or acute rejection. Expected 1-year and 5-year survivals are around 85% and 70%, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The present study analyses, long-term lung cancer survival rate in the Niguarda heart transplant population and the results of surgical treatments.
Methods: From November 1985 to December 2006, 786 heart transplants were performed in our Center; we underwent a retrospective review of patients developing primary lung cancer.
Results: Among 660 heart transplant recipients valuable in this study, 22 (3.
Background: Combined heart-kidney transplantation is an accepted therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart disease associated with severely impaired renal function. We report our single-institutional experience with this combined procedure and long-term follow-up.
Methods: Between April 1989 and August 2006, 9 patients underwent combined simultaneous heart-kidney transplantation at our center.