[Infective endocarditis: considerations regarding optimal timing for surgical treatment].

Background: Treatment of infective endocarditis is primarily conservative. Persistent infection, tissue destruction und hemodynamic instabilities argue - in dependence on the microorganisms involved - for an urgent surgical treatment, even when there is still no control of the local and systemic infection. For timing of the surgical intervention, the following suggestions seem to be valid: TIMING OF THE SURGICAL INTERVENTION: Delayed surgical indication is considered a prognostic factor of extraordinary relevance for surgical treatment of infective endocarditis.

Evidence for a negative inotropic effect of obesity in human myocardium?

Objective: The present study was performed as an attempt to analyze the relationship between body weight and human myocardial performance. As overweight is frequently associated with hypertension, stenosis of epimyocardial coronary arteries and other factors that influence myocardial performance, the experimental model of isolated human atrial myocardium was selected. Atrial contractile performance does neither depend on the extent of stenosis of epicardial coronary arteries nor on the degree of hypertension and its secondary pathology.