Left Atrial Ganglionated Plexi Detection is Related to Heart Rate and Early Recurrence of Atrial Fibrillation after Surgical Ablation.

Introduction:: Left atrial ganglionated plexi ablation is an adjuvant technique used to increase the success rate of surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation. Ganglionated plexi ablation requires previous detection. We aimed to assess determinants of successful ganglionated plexi detection and to correlate range of ganglionated plexi ablation with risk of early atrial fibrillation recurrence.

Echocardiographic Correlates of Abnormal Liver Tests in Patients with Exacerbation of Chronic Heart Failure.

Background: Elevated total bilirubin (TB) and transaminases are frequently reported in patients with heart failure and are related to their worse prognosis. On the basis of hemodynamic data from previous studies, the investigators hypothesized that elevated bilirubin and transaminases are associated with different patterns of cardiac remodeling and dysfunction in patients with heart failure (i.e.

An association between migraines and heart anomalies-true or false? A heart ultrasound study using cTTE in migraine patients and control participants.

Design: A migraine is a common neurological disorder that often coexists with other illnesses including heart abnormalities, such as patent foramen ovale (PFO), atrial septal aneurysm (ASA), and mitral valve prolapse (MVP).

Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate the occurrence of some heart abnormalities in migraine patients by routine and contrast transthoracic echocardiography.

Subjects And Methods: We assessed the occurrence of PFO, ASA, and MVP in 96 patients with migraine without aura (87 females), in 62 patients with migraine with aura (41 females) and in 53 healthy persons (40 females).

Combining systemic therapies with radiation in breast cancer.

Over the last years, significant survival benefits for breast cancer were derived from the use of postoperative systemic therapies and radiotherapy. Although these two modalities have been extensively used, the optimal strategies of their combining remain debatable. There have been few randomized studies addressing this issue and their results are generally inconclusive.

Factors affecting hospital staff judgments about sickle cell disease pain.

Judgments about people with pain are influenced by contextual factors that can lead to stigmatization of patients who present in certain ways. Misplaced staff perceptions of addiction may contribute to this, because certain pain behaviors superficially resemble symptoms of analgesic addiction. We used a vignette study to examine hospital staff judgments about patients with genuine symptoms of analgesic addiction and those with pain behaviors that merely resemble those symptoms.