Demographics, treatment and outcome of acute coronary syndromes: 17 years of experience in a specialized cardiac centre.

Background: Epidemiological information on patients with acute coronary syndromes managed in specialized cardiac centres is limited.

Objective: To report the evolution of demographics, treatment and outcome of patients admitted to a tertiary coronary care unit (CCU) over a 17-year period.

Methods: A prospective database of 18,719 patients admitted from April 1986 to March 2003 in a 21-bed CCU was analyzed.

Angiographic and clinical outcomes of polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent use in significant coronary perforations.

Coronary perforations remain a rare but life-threatening complication of percutaneous coronary intervention. In the setting of complex coronary lesions, 14 of 25 consecutive perforations related to percutaneous coronary intervention were managed with stents covered with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and 11 were managed conventionally with reversal of anticoagulation and prolonged balloon inflation. Procedural success was achieved in 71.

Four-cut sinus computed tomographic scanning in screening for sinus disease.

Objective: We sought to calculate the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value of a limited sinus computed tomographic (CT) scan for sinus disease.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective case series. Inclusion criteria included a sinus CT scan obtained between April 1999 and November 2000.