Effect of electrical parameters on ECT convulsive threshold and duration.

Background: Optimal stimulus parameters for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) are unclear. Pulse duration and frequency related to convulsive threshold and seizure duration in the first ECT treatment in a series were evaluated.

Methods: Convulsive threshold was estimated for all patients (N = 550) receiving ECT over 27 months.

Statins decrease perioperative cardiac complications in patients undergoing noncardiac vascular surgery: the Statins for Risk Reduction in Surgery (StaRRS) study.

Objectives: We sought to assess whether statins may decrease cardiac complications in patients undergoing noncardiac vascular surgery.

Background: Cardiovascular complications account for considerable morbidity in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. Statins decrease cardiac morbidity and mortality in patients with coronary disease, and the beneficial treatment effect is seen early, before any measurable increase in coronary artery diameter.

Prone SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging is associated with less cardiac drift during the acquisition duration than imaging in the supine position.

Background And Aim: Cardiac cranial drift, a slow vertical upward displacement seen during the acquisition of myocardial single photon emission tomography (SPECT), is a source of image artefacts that may lead to erroneous interpretation. Changes in breathing pattern and depth throughout image acquisition are believed to cause cardiac cranial drift. As the physiology of respiration probably differs with postural changes, we hypothesized that cardiac drift may be different for supine vs.

Association of lesion complexity following fibrinolytic administration with mortality in ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

Greater lesion complexity, according to the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, has been associated with decreased success rates of percutaneous coronary intervention. We hypothesized that greater lesion complexity after fibrinolytic administration for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction would similarly be associated with increased mortality and other adverse events at 30 days. We studies 2,605 patients from the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 10B and 14, Integrilin and Tenecteplase in Acute Myocardial Infarction, ENTIRE, and FASTER studies.