Five-year clinical outcomes in patients with significant coronary artery spasm: A propensity score-matched analysis.

Background: Coronary artery spasm (CAS) is known to be a risk factor of acute coronary syndrome and angina pectoris. However, there is no currently available data with larger study population regarding long-term clinical outcomes of CAS in real world clinical practice.

Objectives: We evaluated the prevalence of CAS and the impact of CAS on 5-year clinical outcomes in a series of Asian CAS patients documented by intracoronary acetylcholine (Ach) provocation test.

Impact of low dose atorvastatin on development of new-onset diabetes mellitus in Asian population: Three-year clinical outcomes.

Background: High dose atorvastatin is known to be associated with new onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) in patients with high risk for developing diabetes mellitus (DM). However, low dose atorvastatin is more commonly used as compared with high dose atorvastatin. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of low dose atorvastatin (LDA, 10mg or 20mg) on the development of NODM up to three years in Asian patients.

Comparison of diabetic and non-diabetic patients undergoing endovascular revascularization for peripheral arterial disease.

Objective: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is associated with poor outcomes. We assessed the clinical outcomes of diabetic versus non-diabetic patients with PAD who underwent peripheral transluminal angioplasty (PTA).

Methods: The outcomes of 239 consecutive patients with symptomatic PAD who underwent PTA were analyzed.

Cardiac mass in a patient with sigmoid adenocarcinoma: a metastasis?

Cardiac metastasis from a bowel malignancy seldom occurs and there is a limited number of case reports published on this subject. Although colorectal cancer is the third commonest malignancy in Malaysia, the incidence of cardiac metastasis has never been reported. We report a case of an elderly man with recently diagnosed adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon, who presented with congestive cardiac failure secondary to mechanical obstruction by a right atrial mass.

Right atrial tuberculoma: a diagnosis too late.

Solitary intra-cardiac cavity tuberculoma is extremely rare and often only diagnosed during a post-mortem. We report a case of right atrial tuberculoma causing right atrial outflow tract obstruction in an immune-compromised man. The diagnosis of cardiac tuberculoma was made through the detection of mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA by tuberculosis-polymerase chain reaction in the pericardial fluid.

Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease.

Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease (PPNAD) is a rare adrenal tumour causing corticotrophin-independent Cushing's syndrome. It occurs mainly in children and young adults. The histological examination is characterised by small pigmented micronodules on the adrenal cortex.

Cardiac metastasis: a rare involvement of primitive neuroectodermal tumour of the lung.

A 15 year-old adolescent was referred with 2 month history of worsening of breathlessness and haemoptysis. He also reported constitutional symptoms of fever, poor appetite and weight loss. The chest roentgenogram showed a massive right pleural effusion with apparent cardiomegaly.

An unsual finding of brain magnetic resonance imaging in a hypertensive patient.

Brain edema in patients with hypertensive encephalopathy frequently affects the parietooccipital white matter. Hypertensive encephalopathy is thus included as a differential diagnosis in reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome. Diffuse white matter involvement rarely occurs.