One-year mortality in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction in the Vienna STEMI registry.

Background And Aim: Systems of care to treat acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have been developed world wide in the past decade. Their effectiveness can only be proven by including and analyzing outcome data of consecutive patients in registries, which is not the case in the majority of STEMI networks. This study investigates 1-year mortality in STEMI patients in Vienna included over a 14 months time interval.

Inhomogeneous vasomotor effects of moderate selective and non-selective endothelin-receptor blockade in stable coronary artery disease.

Objective: To explore the morphological and functional effect of selective and non-selective endothelin (ET)-receptor blockade in coronary artery disease (CAD).

Design: Prospective randomised controlled trial.

Setting: University hospital.

Beck and back: a paradigm change in coronary sinus interventions--pulsatile stretch on intact coronary venous endothelium.

Objectives: Strategies to recover myocardium in therapeutically unresponsive patients are again under scrutiny, including techniques developed in the pioneering days of cardiothoracic surgery such as retroperfusion via the coronary sinus--the Beck procedure. An underestimated aspect of retroperfusion is the formation of new vessels. This early observation of neoangiogenesis may be an important mechanism in observed benefits.

Implementation of guidelines improves the standard of care: the Viennese registry on reperfusion strategies in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (Vienna STEMI registry).

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether implementation of recent guidelines improves in-hospital mortality from acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in a metropolitan area.

Methods And Results: We organized a network that consisted of the Viennese Ambulance Systems, which is responsible for diagnosis and triage of patients with acute STEMI, and 5 high-volume interventional cardiology departments to expand the performance of primary percutaneous catheter intervention (PPCI) and to use the fastest available reperfusion strategy in STEMI of short duration (2 to 3 hours from onset of symptoms), either PPCI or thrombolytic therapy (TT; prehospital or in-hospital), respectively. Implementation of guidelines resulted in increased numbers of patients receiving 1 of the 2 reperfusion strategies (from 66% to 86.

PGE1 analog alprostadil induces VEGF and eNOS expression in endothelial cells.

Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), VEGF, and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1alpha) are important regulators of endothelial function, which plays a role in the pathophysiology of heart failure (HF). PGE1 analog treatment in patients with HF elicits beneficial hemodynamic effects, but the precise mechanisms have not been investigated. We have investigated the effects of the PGE1 analog alprostadil on eNOS, VEGF, and HIF-1alpha expression in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) using RT-PCR and immunoblotting under normoxic and hypoxic conditions.