Prognostic variables for clinical outcomes in valvular heart disease patients with moderate to severe secondary tricuspid regurgitation.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Secondary tricuspid regurgitation (STR) is frequently seen in cardiology practice. Currently, few data are available on the prognostic variables associated with moderate or severe STR on death and progression to valve surgery. Hence, the study aim was to identify these prognostic variables.

Preventing stroke in atrial fibrillation patients - clinical utility of oral anticoagulants.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common of the cardiac arrhythmias and is associated with high risk of stroke and systemic thromboembolism. Prevention of these complications is therefore a major component of clinical management in patients with this rhythm disorder. The choice of antithrombotic therapy in any given patient depends on his or her risk profile and needs to be carefully balanced against the risk of bleeding.

Left ventricular outflow tract and mid-cavity obstruction may cause false-positive dobutamine stress echocardiograms.

Left ventricular (LV) outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) occurs in up to 20% of patients undergoing dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE). Mid-cavity LV obstruction occurs less commonly during DSE. LV regional wall motion abnormalities during DSE may occur despite normal coronaries due to hypertensive blood pressure response and takotsubo stress cardiomyopathy.