Assessment of atherothrombosis and its treatment in Mexico: first-year data of the REACH Registry.

Background: Atherothrombosis, a generalized and progressive process, is currently a major healthcare problem in Mexico.

Methods: The worldwide Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) registry aimed to evaluate risk factors for atherosclerosis, long-term cardiovascular (CV) event rates, and current management of either patients with established symptomatic atherosclerotic disease or asymptomatic subjects with multiple risk factors for atherothrombotic disease. One-year follow-up of the global REACH database was available for 64 977 outpatients.

[Molecular biology of heart failure].

Heart failure is a complex disorder involving maladaptive responses that result in defective regulation and function of multiple biological systems. Adequate understanding of these processes is basic for the development of novel therapeutic approaches. This review, directed to the molecular biology of the heart, is divided in three sections, with some redundancy between them: hypertrophy and remodeling, molecular composition of the failing heart, and molecular mechanisms leading to heart failure.

[Progress in the treatment of diabetic patients with ischemic cardiopathy].

Among the risk factors for ischemic cardiopathy none influences more long-term restenosis and mortality as diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus is ranked third as cause of death; 65 to 85% of these patients die due to cardiovascular disease. The use of coronary stents associated to glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors has proven to be superior to stents alone or PTCA in the treatment of ischemic cardiopathy in diabetic patients.

Cyanosis after surgical correction of pulmonary valve stenosis: an old problem revisited.

The presence of cyanosis following repair of congenital cardiac defects may result from several different mechanisms. We report two patients in whom early postoperative arterial hypoxemia manifested by cyanosis was caused by right-to-left interatrial shunting. Two-dimensional contrast echocardiography correctly identified the site and direction of shunting, leading to surgical correction of the complication.