Cardiopulmonary exercise test with bicycle stress echocardiography for predicting adverse cardiac events in patients with stage A or B heart failure.

Background: Given the high prevalence of stage A or B heart failure (HF), comprehensive screening for new-onset HF is cost-prohibitive. Therefore, further risk stratification is warranted to identify at-risk patients. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic utility of cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) with bicycle stress echocardiography (BSE) in patients with stage A or B HF.

Effect of Calcium Channel Blockers on Antiplatelet Activity of Clopidogrel in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Insights from the PTRG-DES Consortium.

Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are frequently co-administered with clopidogrel in cardiovascular disease. Although an inhibitory drug interaction exists between them, comprehensive large-scale studies for its validation are lacking. We investigated interactions between CCBs and clopidogrel using a large-scale national registry of patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Long-term Outcome of Cryoballoon Ablation in Korean Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: Real-World Experience From the Cryo Global Registry.

Background And Objectives: Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common atrial arrhythmia (AA), is an increasing healthcare burden in Korea. The objective of this sub-analysis of the Cryo Global Registry was to evaluate long-term efficacy, symptom burden, quality of life (QoL), and healthcare utilization outcomes and factors associated with AA recurrence in Korean patients treated with cryoballoon ablation (CBA).

Methods: Patients were treated and followed up according to local standard-of-care in 3 Korean hospitals.

Integrative Assessment of Cardiopulmonary Fitness Using Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test With Supine Bicycle Echocardiography in Patients Presenting Dyspnea.

Background: Cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) with supine bicycle echocardiography (SBE) enables comprehensive physiologic assessment during exercise. We characterized cardiopulmonary fitness by integrating CPET-SBE parameters and evaluated its prognostic value in patients presenting with dyspnea.

Methods And Results: We retrospectively reviewed 473 consecutive patients who underwent CPET-SBE for dyspnea evaluation.