Systematic Search for Present and Potential Portals of Entry for Infective Endocarditis.

Background: Looking for and treating the portal of entry (POE) of infective endocarditis (IE) is important, but published research on this topic is nonexistent.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to systematically search for the POEs of present and potentially new episodes of IEs.

Methods: Patients were systematically seen by a stomatologist, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, and a urologist; women were systematically seen by a gynecologist; patients were seen by a dermatologist when there were cutaneous and/or mucous lesions.

Optimal timing for cardiac surgery in infective endocarditis: is earlier better?

All patients with infective endocarditis should be transferred to a hospital with cardiac surgery facilities. Once the decision to operate on a patient with infective endocarditis has been made, the timing of surgery is very often a difficult decision. Literature on this topic is very scarce.

Aortic valve stenosis after previous coronary bypass: transcatheter valve implantation or aortic valve replacement?

We report a prospective comparison between transcatheter valve implantation (TAVI, n = 13) and surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR, n = 10) in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis and previous coronary bypass surgery (CABG). All patients had at least bilateral patent internal thoracic arteries bypass without indication of repeat revascularization. After a similar post-procedure outcome, despite one early death in TAVI group, the 1-year survival was 100% in surgical group and in transfemoral TAVI group, and 73% in transapical TAVI group.

Recommendations on prophylaxis for infective endocarditis: dramatic changes over the past seven years.

Recommendations on antibiotic prophylaxis against infective endocarditis have changed dramatically since 2002. In 2002, the French were the first to make a profound change: they proposed that antibiotic prophylaxis should be optional when a medical, surgical or dental procedure that carries a risk of infective endocarditis was performed in a patient at risk but not at very high risk of infective endocarditis (group B: native valve disease, non-cyanotic congenital heart disease, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). In 2004, the European Society of Cardiology and the British Society of Cardiology made almost no changes to their previous recommendations.

[Infective endocarditis].

Infective endocarditis is a severe disease. This fact justifies prophylaxis, although its indications have been narrowed over the last years; as early the diagnosis as possible, that forbids any antibiotic treatment without previous blood cultures in a patient with a cardiac disease at risk for infective endocarditis; often cardiac surgery, whose indications remain difficult and need the collaboration of the cardiologist, the infectious diseases specialist and the cardiac surgeon.

150 microgram intracoronary adenosine bolus for accurate fractional flow reserve assessment of angiographically intermediate coronary stenosis.

Aims: Fractional flow reserve measurement is based upon achieving maximum hyperemia. A 40 microg intracoronary (IC) adenosine bolus sometimes seems insufficient, and we therefore sought to assess the possible role of 100-150 microg boli in routine.

Methods And Results: 108 intermediate (49+/-16%) stenoses were consecutively studied with 6F catheters.

Limits of arterial myocardial revascularization.

A prospective study of myocardial blood perfusion after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) was conducted in two groups of patients. In group 1, a two-year assessment by exercise thallium myocardial scintigraphy without medical treatment was performed in 122 patients who consecutively underwent CABG with exclusive use of both internal mammary arteries (IMA) and gastroepiploic artery (GEA). In group 2, myocardial function and perfusion were determined by radionuclide investigations performed before and one year after CABG in 100 patients with preoperative LV dysfunction (defined as LV ejection fraction (LVEF) less than 0.

[Epidemiology of acute coronary syndrome].

As for myocardial infarction, the epidemiology of acute coronary syndromes is very different according to whether it concerns hospitalized patients only or acute coronary syndromes as a whole: many patients die before any medical intervention. The epidemiology of acute coronary syndromes is not well known since we have almost no specific data regarding unstable angina. The annual incidence of acute coronary syndromes in France is greater than 280 per 100,000 men and 60 per 100,000 women.

Is coronary angiography performed in the appropriate patients after acute myocardial infarction? Clinical and angiographic findings and one-year mortality in a large unselected cohort of 2493 consecutive patients in a French region (the PRIMA study).

Objective: Rates of coronary angiography (CA) after myocardial infarction (MI) vary widely between institutions. Furthermore, the indications for CA are often in conflict with recognized guidelines. The present study sought to determine the characteristics and the one-year mortality in patients with MI, regardless of age and hospital facilities, according to the use of CA after MI.

Do differences in baseline characteristics or in management account for the poorer in-hospital and subsequent outcome after myocardial infarction in diabetics? Data from a large unselected cohort.

Objective: There is an excess mortality after myocardial infarction in diabetics, but also documented significant differences in the characteristics of MI and in management between diabetics and non-diabetics. The aim of this prospective study in a large unselected patient cohort in a single French region was to determine if baseline characteristics, management, or in-hospital and one-year mortality differed in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with myocardial infarction.

Methods And Results: Data were prospectively collected in consecutive patients with myocardial infarction admitted to all hospitals in three departments in the Rhone-Alpes region between September 1, 1993 and January 31,1995.

Treatment and prevention of infective endocarditis.

The paper presents the most recent recommendations for the treatment and prevention of infective endocarditis (IE). The treatment of IE is complex and requires close collaboration among specialists in infectious diseases, cardiology, cardiac surgery and microbiology. The mainstay of medical treatment is antibiotic therapy.