Atrial High-Rate Episodes and Subclinical Atrial Fibrillation: State of the Art and Clinical Questions with Complex Solutions.

Atrial high-rate episodes (AHREs) and subclinical atrial fibrillation (AF) are frequently registered in asymptomatic patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) and insertable cardiac monitors (ICMs). While an increased risk of thromboembolic events (e.g.

Selection of candidates for cardiac resynchronization therapy and implantation management: an Italian survey promoted by the Italian Association of Arrhythmology and Cardiac Pacing.

Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) represents an effective heart failure treatment, associated with reduction in mortality and heart failure hospitalizations. This Italian survey aimed to address relevant CRT issues.

Methods: An online survey was administered to AIAC members.

Effectiveness of Implantable DEfibrillators Alert Systems: comparison between audible and vibratory alert: IDEAS study.

Introduction: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) alarm systems are an important means of monitoring device functioning. The aim of this study was to compare the ability of patients with sense two types of device alert systems: an audible alert and a vibratory alarm.

Methods: The ability to recognize the alarms was assessed in three alarm tests performed in a series of consecutive ICD patients enrolled during routine outpatient device follow-up.

Reduced long-term overall mortality in heart failure patients with prolonged QRS treated with CRT combined with ICD vs. heart failure patients with narrow QRS treated with ICD only.

Aims: It is not known whether heart failure (HF) patients with prolonged QRS who undergo cardiac resynchronization therapy combined with a defibrillator (CRT-D) have a prognostic advantage over HF patients with narrow QRS (therefore without indication for CRT) treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) only. The aim of this study was to compare the long-term mortality of a group of HF patients with prolonged QRS receiving CRT-D with that of a similar group of patients with narrow QRS receiving ICD only.

Methods And Results: A total of 312 patients (mean age 66 ± 13 years; 84% male, mean left ventricular ejection fraction 25 ± 4%, mean New York Heart Association class 2.

[Inguinal hernia surgery. Review of a caseload and description of a technique variation].

Background: To evaluate the efficacy of the tension free surgical technique for the treatment inguinal hernia.

Methods: The authors propose personal experience of 172 patients, treated for inguinal hernia in the period from 1986 to 1993, selecting two patients groups. In the first group the patients (80 cases) were treated with traditional hernioplasty, in the second group (92 cases) hernioplasty tension-free was performed.

[Cystic disease of the breast. Ten-year experience].

Cystic breast disease is a relatively widespread pathological condition in the female sex, it has an incidence of around 7% and predominantly affects women aged between 40 and 50 years old. The authors report their experience based on the observation of 1046 cases taken from a series consisting of over 30,000 examinations. Patients were studied following a standardised diagnostic protocol including breast examination, breast scan and, depending on the patient's age or the presence of pathological findings, mammography.

[The experience of an outpatient service of breast pathology. I. The diagnostic procedure for screening].

The authors underline the importance of correct screening in the female population in order to achieve as early a diagnosis as possibly of malignant breast tumours. In view of the high frequency of this neoplasia, as well as the encouraging results of numerous tested diagnostic protocols in terms of their positive influence on the progress of this disease, the authors prepared a screening protocol within a breast pathology service, and report the results achieved during the course of about seven years. Out of a total of 5000 patients aged between 30 and 90 years old, a total of 261 cases were diagnosed with pathologies requiring surgery with a 57.

[Laparoscopic appendicectomy. Personal experience and results].

The paper discusses the indications, limits and basic technical principles of laparoscopic appendicectomy, comparing the costs and benefits to the laparotomic method. The authors review the Literature on this subject and report their personal experience of 11 cases with a nil morbidity and mortality rate.