Diagnostic performance of non-invasive imaging for stable coronary artery disease: A meta-analysis.

Background: To determine diagnostic performance of non-invasive tests using invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) as reference standard for coronary artery disease (CAD).

Methods: Medline, Embase, and citations of articles, guidelines, and reviews for studies were used to compare non-invasive tests with invasive FFR for suspected CAD published through March 2017.

Results: Seventy-seven studies met inclusion criteria.

Impact of a New Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASIR)-V Algorithm on Image Quality in Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography.

Rationale And Objectives: A new postprocessing algorithm named adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR)-V has been recently introduced. The aim of this article was to analyze the impact of ASIR-V algorithm on signal, noise, and image quality of coronary computed tomography angiography.

Materials And Methods: Fifty consecutive patients underwent clinically indicated coronary computed tomography angiography (Revolution CT; GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI).

Image Quality, Overall Evaluability, and Effective Radiation Dose of Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography With Prospective Electrocardiographic Triggering Plus Intracycle Motion Correction Algorithm in Patients With a Heart Rate Over 65 Beats Per Minute.

Purpose: Recently, a new intracycle motion correction algorithm (MCA) was introduced to reduce motion artifacts from heart rate (HR) in coronary computed tomography angiography (cCTA). The aim of the study was to evaluate the image quality, overall evaluability, and effective radiation dose (ED) of cCTA with prospective electrocardiographic (ECG) triggering plus MCA as compared with standard protocol with retrospective ECG triggering in patients with HR≥65 bpm.

Materials And Methods: One hundred consecutive patients (67±10 y) scheduled for cCTA with 65 View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prognostic Stratification of Patients With ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (PROSPECT): A Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Study.

Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a robust tool to evaluate left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), myocardial salvage index, microvascular obstruction, and myocardial hemorrhage in patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. We evaluated the additional prognostic benefit of a CMR score over standard prognostic stratification with global registry of acute coronary events (GRACE) score and transthoracic echocardiography LVEF measurement.

Methods And Results: Two hundred nine consecutive patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (age, 61.

[Horizons and perspectives on the problem of non--responders to cardiac resynchronization therapy.].

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has been shown as a successful strategy in the treatment of patients with heart failure and electrical dyssincrony. However, a significant proportion of implanted patients fails to respond sufficiently or in a predictable manner. Consequently, non response to CRT remains a valuable problem in clinical practice.

Fractional flow reserve: lessons from PLATFORM and future perspectives.

In the treatment of stable coronary artery disease (CAD) the identification of patients who may gain the highest benefit from further invasive treatments is of pivotal importance for the healthcare system. In this setting, it has been established that an ischemia-guided revascularization strategy yields improved clinical outcomes in a cost-effective fashion compared with anatomy-guided revascularization alone. Invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) is considered the gold standard, especially in the intermediate-range atherosclerotic lesions, for assessing lesion specific ischemia at the time of invasive coronary angiography and has now become the standard of reference for studies assessing the diagnostic performance of the various non-invasive stress tests.

Native Mitral Valve Endocarditis Caused by subsp. in a Patient with Marfan Syndrome: First Case in Italy and Review of the Literature.

(NE) is an aerobic Gram-negative organism that constitutes part of the commensal human normal oropharyngeal flora. Although previously considered not to be pathogenic, it has been recognized as an occasional cause of significant infections in humans. We report here the first case in Italy of infective endocarditis of a native prolapsing mitral valve in a patient with Marfan syndrome, caused by NE subspecies which has been rarely isolated from clinical specimens.