Background: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence and clinical significance of depression in patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (CRT-D). The study was also to evaluate the impact of shock therapy on depression development and long-term prognosis.
Methods: The prospective study encompassed 396 consecutive heart failure (HF) patients implanted with CRT-D.
Increased lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] level is associated with elevated possibility of atherosclerosis progression. SYNTAX score enables to grade the anatomy of coronary arteries. To identify the impact of increased Lp(a) level on SYNTAX score in individuals with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Myocarditis may be difficult to diagnose because of the variety of its clinical manifestations, and the clinical course of the disease can be unpredictable. Nevertheless, some patients may exhibit partial or full contractile recovery following myocarditis. Standard and speckle-tracking echocardiography may serve as tools to follow this recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCompared with usual care, guideline-adherent stroke prevention strategy, based on the ABC (Atrial fibrillation Better Care) pathway, is associated with better outcomes. Given that stroke prevention is central to atrial fibrillation (AF) management, improved efforts to determining predictors of adherence with 'A' (avoid stroke) component of the ABC pathway are needed. We tested the hypothesis that more sophisticated methodology using machine learning (ML) algorithms could do this.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The main complications of elevated systemic blood pressure (BP), coronary heart disease, ischaemic stroke, and peripheral vascular disease, are related to thrombosis rather than haemorrhage. Therefore, it is important to investigate if antithrombotic therapy may be useful in preventing thrombosis-related complications in patients with elevated BP.
Objectives: To conduct a systematic review of the role of antiplatelet therapy and anticoagulation in patients with elevated BP, including elevations in systolic or diastolic BP alone or together.
Background: The 4S-AF scheme includes stroke risk, symptoms, severity of burden, and substrate severity domain.
Aim: We aimed to assess the adherence to the 4S-AF scheme in patients classified according to stroke risk in post hoc analysis of the BALKAN-AF dataset.
Methods: A 14-week prospective enrolment of consecutive patients with electrocardiographically documented atrial fibrillation (AF) was performed in seven Balkan countries from 2014 to 2015.